It's called a scam by some because often plumbers, electricians, and various construction workers make more and have steadier lives.
However, you can't really mingle with people of a certain class without a college degree. In the very least, it's a social necessity - a kind of rite of passage. It means you had the money and free time, and thus, you are 'in'. Next step up, giving back to the university. Which, in retrospect, I wish I hadn't done. I was deep in conversation with a dude, and we had a deal, so anyway.

It can also be used in a more practical way as a tool for personal advancement. Sometimes, when i reflect on how minimal my social involvement is, I wonder why the hell any of this was so important. I feel like in my career, I could have gotten by without it. But I really lacked confidence. That would probably have stayed with me forever. So I reluctantly concede that it may possibly have been worth it. but if I could go back I'd would recommend being a C student, with a liberal sprinkling of D's and F's. Straight A STEM = nerd maxxing. I could have had so much more fun than I did. I sincerely regret that. If you go to college, take my advice and be a party animal. Make some good memories and enjoy life.

73% of adults is a huge overestimate. Instead of doing the backwards calculations, you can just google it. It's about 44% of adults age 25 and over with any form of post-high school degree.

https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/an...gree%20holders.


The problem is you are adding up associates, bachelor's and post-grad degrees not realizing that many that hold a bachelor'salsoattained an associates, and so on for the post-grad degrees. They do not simply stack.


Second, the median income you shared includes ALL earners, including part time employees and young adults. There are several million teens working full or part-time jobs, and in total nearly 28 million part-time workers. That significantly drags down the median earnings.

According to the bureau of labor statistics, the average income forfull-timeworkers is significantly higher at about $55K.

https://www.firstrepublic.com/insigh...0and%20savings.

As a comparison, that is almost identical to the average STARTING salary for a college graduate in the US.

https://www.thebalancemoney.com/coll...eality-4142305

And that includes crappy jobs.


The average starting salary for CS in 2022 is $76K. For engineering it's $74K. Math and sciences have an average starting salary of $67K.

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/stude...ege-graduates/




All that to say, which is already well known, college is 100% worth it if you pursue a degree that actually pays. Right out the gate you will be making more than the average high school graduate who is well established in their career, by a large margin.

Fair on the math. I was working from the posted link from the Census Bureau.




Of course a chart of all earners will include everyone. If you check out the wallethacks link they have more income data. It's not so easy to find good up to date information on wages and income if you aren't able to dig through some complicated government created charts with less than clear labeling.

A lot of tables will use "average" instead of "median" which is pointless to me given that there are people with annual wages in the millions and finding individual broken out from household is a PITA too.

You have posted the average at $55K so that number includes these people-




Probably some government database has some actually useful information which doesn't include casually employed students/retirees and ALSO doesn't include people earning ridiculous amounts, but we have what we can find.

If you go to college aren't studying STEM you're wasting your time.

College degrees are useful if you get a useful degree. Do accounting, finance or stem

STEM is for people who wants to make money. But there's lots of jobs out there to make money.

Life isn't just about money. There's lots of interesting subjects out there to study. America is becoming too materialistic. You'd want to have some stuff to your name, but a lot of people are over doing it. You can't go for a relaxing drive anymore, worrying about someone hitting their 60k truck, flipping you off because you made a lane change, paying insane insurance rates. Chits crazy, son.

BRB spending thousands of dollars and going into debt to study something 'interesting'. Then then become a minimum wage barista with no way out of your financial hole.


A lot of 18-22 year olds are dumb and gullible. They go to college and get mislead by advisors and professors into believing as long as they get a degree they can enter the world and find a good job. They aren't told however is that with a large portion of degree fields they'll be lucky to score a job paying 35-40K when they graduate. And most of them will top out at around 60K salary even once they are older/experienced.


Now we have a bunch of 30 year old losers running around that can't even afford something basic like buying a home. Much less paying off their student loans and all the other debts they acquire.

BRB spending thousands of dollars and going into debt to study something 'interesting'. Then then become a minimum wage barista with no way out of your financial hole.


A lot of 18-22 year olds are dumb and gullible. They go to college and get mislead by advisors and professors into believing as long as they get a degree they can enter the world and find a good job. They aren't told however is that with a large portion of degree fields they'll be lucky to score a job paying 35-40K when they graduate. And most of them will top out at around 60K salary even once they are older/experienced.


Now we have a bunch of 30 year old losers running around that can't even afford something basic like buying a home. Much less paying off their student loans and all the other debts they acquire.