Do I understand correctly that the study uses 5 year post-grad salary figures? And also 10 year, sort of?
It does only consider public colleges and universities (and in 8 states, or 3 at times though that isn’t really an issue IMO). That makes me wonder how relevant this is for the “typical” CC’er who’s choosing between Engineering and English Lit at HYPMS or Biology and Math at Johns Hopkins or Hamilton, etc. ?
Also some weird data. Physician Assistant only requires an associates degree? To make $100K a year in Florida? I think not. I think that’s mixing up two different jobs and degrees. (page 5 of study PDF)
(edited to add, I actually see that some schools DO offer an associate for PAs. Odd.)
The problem with surveys like that is that it doesn’t account for the differences among students who enter more techie or career-oriented majors, prior to undertaking whatevever course of study is indicated. You can’t simply plug a kid who is unmotivated or who struggles with basic algebra into a computer engineering degree to get that $83K salary. You’ll just get a computer engineering washout.
And those kids who majored in early childhood education didn’t choose the major for the money.