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We might have touched peak college in 2013. Accelerated by Covid, college enrollment numbers slipped by 2.5 million during the past decade. At the same time, the number of college-age students is down as is their interest in attending collage.
But, does it matter?
6 Facts About College Degrees
1. Recent Grads Do Earn More.
On average, your “paycheck” will be close to double what a non-college degree holder will earn:
2. But it does depend on the major.
Shown in this excerpt from an alphabetical table of college majors, anthropology majors can expect a lower salary than aerospace engineers:
3. And how many years you’ve attended school.
The following Georgetown statistics are based on full time workers, aged 25 to 64 between 2009 and 2019:
4. But maybe the degree won’t matter.
A Georgetown study found that 16% of high school diploma holders and 28% of associate’s degree holders earn more than close to half of college grads with bachelor’s degrees.
5. And, instead, income mobility will count.
Economist Raj Chetty told us the best colleges to attend if you come from the bottom and aspire to the top:
6. As will where you live.
In Alaska, an associate’s degree gets you the highest median earnings while for residents of Wyoming, North Dakota, and Alaska, a high school diploma results in the highest median earnings. At the same time, people with bachelor’s degrees earn the most in Washington D.C., Connecticut, Maryland, Ohio, and Illinois:
Our Bottom Line: Human Capital
To imagine what we mean by human capital, please think of a person as you would a factory. Adding education (human capital) to people is like purchasing new machinery (physical capital) for factories. Both boost productivity.
And again like physical capital, more human capital can generate higher earnings that have a widespread benefit.
My sources and more: The interplay between econlife’s details about majors and the bigger picture from Axios created the ideal synergy. But then this NY Federal Reserve study, this Georgetown report, and CNBC had more. In addition, always Harvard’s Raj Chetty adds so much more substance. (Please note that today’s “Our Bottom Line” was in a past econlife post.)
