<p>"Nearly 30% of Americans with associate's degrees now make more than those with bachelor's degrees, according to Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce. In fact, other recent research in several states shows that, on average, community college graduates right out of school make more than graduates of four-year universities."</p>
<p>The article does point out that grads with four-year degrees catch up and overtake AA degree holders over time, but the BA grads often have significant debt (and perhaps fewer years in the workforce). </p>
<p>^Yup. I’ve seen this dynamic at work in my daughter’s cohort. Some still-meandering-bachelor’s-level-baristas are being outperformed in income by less stellar (but adequately focused) peers who went straight to AA/technical degrees. Some of those kids have three or four years of solid income building under their belts already and are on a promotional path. </p>
<p>They take vacations and go out to dinner. Some are even getting married and having kids. Imagine that!</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing. Here’s a quote from the article.</p>
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<p>The title of the article is somewhat misleading.</p>
<p>I do agree that most CCs offer programs, especially in health care, that will enable a grad to jump right into the workforce at a pretty decent starting salary.</p>
<p>I do wonder, however, if the oft-cited “$500k” advantage for the four-year versus two year practical degree will continue to hold up in the future. The data is retrospective. Looking in the rear view mirror may become somewhat less relevant if the fundamentals have changed. </p>
<p>Anecdotally, I see a number of newly graduated, practical/technical degree holders set to do better—even over the long haul–as compared to recent BA grads. This makes me wonder if the landscape may be changing, with less relative advantage accruing for four year degrees. Overall, the benefit may remain, but perhaps it will be smaller.</p>
<p>This is not new or surprising. I have an advanced degree. My brother has an associates. He earns more. Has for a very long time. No way could I do what he does. In fact, many of us have experiences that support the article’s findings. Nice that somebody gets publication credit for making the obvious into news.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it seems that journalists are running out of new and useful stories. Right now the education topic du jour seems to be student debt and unemployment (or underemployment) among college grads.</p>
<p>Yes, the media is definitely having a fun-fest with those topics. </p>
<p>That said, I do enjoy statistics and, if conceived and performed correctly, the numbers don’t always tell us what we expect or what we think we already know. Anecdotes are interesting, but what “some” grads earn or don’t earn, or what Tom Cruise earns, doesn’t tell us anything about trends over time. </p>
<p>The question that I find interesting is whether, in the future, the lifelong earning gap between AA and BA holders may narrow. Some of the high level, broader skills gained via a humanities BA (analytic skills, writing, etc), for example, have become less valuable and/or marketable (for some, of course–talking broad trends only) in a weak economy that is saturated with college grads. At the same time, the number of AA grads has barely increased (up 3% over last 20 years as cited in the article). And many of the more hands on, specific, practical, AA/certification jobs (like surveyor, med tech, machinist, mechanic, IT, paralegals) are generally more resistant to outsourcing and off-shoring. Will all boats rise together as the economy mends? Will relative demand for these types of degrees remain steady or will patterns change and pay levels diverge further? Who knows. </p>
<p>Just sayin…to me it’s not all 100% obvious and I find it interesting to think about.</p>
<p>gladiatorbird, I’m a statistics junkie. I think it will be interesting to see if the trends change in the future. I graduated with a BS in an allied health profession, but an associates degree is all that’s required to be employed in this profession. The average salary for someone employed in this field is $92K/year. I think that’s pretty darn good.</p>
<p>It seems to me that some of the people who frequent the CC forum feel that a community college education is in some way inferior to a 4-year degree. If it can prepare you for a career where you can make $92K/year, I wouldn’t pooh-pooh it.</p>
<p>aquamarine sea, would you name the field? Just thinking of the allied health programs that our local community college has, I can’t name one that has an average salary of $92,000!</p>
<p>And I’m not disparaging associates degrees, I just finished an associates program for RN and in our area the pay is the same new ASNs or BSNs. Just curious what pays so well!</p>
<p>The best statistical findings are those that surprise us. I wonder if the earnings gap will actually converge in future years. The global marketplace makes the world a different beast. We do live in interesting times.</p>
<p>But those are not community college degrees? Several of those require grad school. I don’t believe dental hygienists make that much around here.</p>
<p>Radiology techs make more than nurses here. IT grads also have good potential. I have a nephew who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in German, could not get a job, and got a certificate in some kind of IT.</p>
<p>With my master’s degree, I do not make a huge annual salary, but my hourly salary is pretty good. A job like mine would certainly mess up these numbers.</p>
<p>Occupational Therapy requires a Master’s Degree now and, quite frankly, when I was an OT, we weren’t making anywhere NEAR what an RN could make. A Certified OT Assistant is still an associates degree, but they make less than 2/3 what an OTR makes… at least that was the case in 2000, when I left my OTR career.</p>
<p>Yes, the only job on that list that can be obtained with an associates degree is dental hygiene. Almost all PT programs are doctorate level (D1 is a PT), OT entry level is masters degree and that field is heading toward doctorate (D2 is finishing OT), physicians assistant and speech are masters degree minimum. Dietician is bachelors. Beginning salaries for PT’s and OT’s are above that of a new RN, at least in our area. But a new RN could be employed with only an associates degree.</p>
<p>Dental hygienists where I live make about 42K, which is pretty good. I don’t know for sure what my dental surgeon makes, but he’s got a couple of Ferraris in his garage, that rat-fink. He’s quite good at what he does, though, despite being a rat-fink.</p>