

Community college grads out-earn bachelor's degree holders - swGooF
http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/26/pf/college/community-college-earnings/index.html

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craftkiller
Yeah. I'm graduating this semester with a bachelors degree and starting a job
at $105,000 salary. I'd like to see a community college grad pull that off.

~~~
ketralnis
> With a two-year community college degree, air traffic controllers can make
> $113,547, radiation therapists $76,627, dental hygienists $70,408, nuclear
> medicine technologists $69,638, nuclear technicians $68,037, registered
> nurses $65,853, and fashion designers $63,170, CareerBuilder.com reported in
> January.

They're not claiming that people holding the same job make more money with
less education. They're saying it's possible to make more money on less
education by targeting some specific 2-year-degree jobs, especially as
compared to some lesser-paying 4-year-degree jobs.

And either way since they're not making the claim that it happens 100% of the
time, your anecdotal evidence isn't really all that relevant

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bathat
> They're saying it's possible to make more money on less education by
> targeting some specific 2-year-degree jobs, especially as compared to some
> lesser-paying 4-year-degree jobs.

Right, they are comparing very highest AS/AA holders to the _average_ BS/BA
holder. It's an interesting point, but it isn't quite as strong a point as the
point the headline suggests.

Also, one thing I notice about the highest-paying of those jobs is that they
require some sort of certification and continuing education / recurring
training above and beyond a 2 year degree. In other words, the 2-year degree
_alone_ isn't sufficient to enter one of those careers that out-earns the
average bachelor's holder. Additionally, the jobs cited are mostly in fields
that are notoriously highly-paid (medicine, nuclear technology, etc). That's
not to say that any particular high school student shouldn't look at community
colleges.

As for anecdotal evidence, the article is full of it (comparing, for example,
the community college and university graduates only in Tennessee, and
comparing "technical" fields in Virginia CCs to all Virginia BS/BA graduates).
Wikipedia has statistics from 2009
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_the_U...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_the_United_States#Income)),
which suggest that nationally BA/BS grads earn 30% more than AA/AS grads.

