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Starting at age 24 with the US Census data doesn't change the numbers by more than a few percentage points.
I'm not arguing that most higher paying jobs require a minimum of a Bachelor's degree...what the job requires does not change what the "pool" of available workers have in terms of educational attainment....
Considering the unemployment figures currently, what does it tell you that job search websites have unfilled jobs with a minimum educational requirement of a BA?
It tells me that there aren't enough qualified applicants that can reach that bar....
A decided minority of Americans possess a Bachelor's degree or higher...that is a statistic that hasn't changed in several generations...
Let's say a person is 45 years old, high school diploma, some college but no degree, 25 years of full-time work experience.
Now let's say you are 23 years old, B.A. or B.S., and 0 years of work experience.
Education is often not as important to older employees, because they entered the labor marketplace in an era when a high-school diploma was the standard level of education among their peers. Now they are established in their fields and their work experience frequently substitutes for education.
It is important, however, when most of your same-age peers have college diplomas, and your only work experience consists of serving coffee and Vanilla Bean Frappuccinos at Starbucks, flipping burgers at McDonalds, and mowing yards during the summer of 2004.
I have a bachelor's degree in "Languages and International Studies" (which is now known as "Global and Cultural Studies") and a minor in Spanish, which I am quite proficient in (though a little bit rusty when it comes to speaking/listening, but that improves quickly whenever I'm in a setting where I have to use it). Graduated with highest honors in 2010. And you know what?
Not even the bank wants me as a teller. I kind of knew of the degree's marginality when I chose it my freshman / sophomore year, and was planning on attending graduate school. I was applying to different M.A. and Ph.D. programs when a catastrophic medical problem struck me out of nowhere in my senior year of college.
The only job I was able to land was a seasonal night shelf stocker position at a major chain store (which has to be one of the worse jobs around), although I had tight income limits due to Medicaid.
Although, I must say, there isn't much of a use for "international studies" in what has to be one of the least international cities around (Duluth, Minnesota). But there's no way I'm getting out of here any time soon, perhaps even before I die.
Your degree would be useful in D.C. or a city with a lot of defense contractors. They aren't really looking for Spanish speakers, in general, but there is a defense contractor in San Antonio that is almost always looking for Spanish speakers. The FBI is also looking for language analysts, but again, they are looking for people who speak critical needs languages such as Mandarin, Dari, Farsi, Russian, and Arabic.
Of course they have less debt because the parents can pay.
believe it or not, you don't have to be rich to get into a good school (though its a nice excuse). i think somewhere around 50% of students were on financial aid at my school
someone said that to me the other day. i told him he's full of it.
look at the numbers. 28 percent of americans have a bachelors degree +
a bachelors will still get it done if you arnt wasting your time with a worthless degree like womens studies.
this is what im thinking down the road, next 20 years job wise.
think doing something global, say a global studies, a international relations type program where you pick up a language and pair it with some math or business is going to be valuable.
engineering, computer sciences will remain valuable.
dont waste time with crap like art studies, media studies.
people assume just because they get a bachelors they should have employers waiting for them, not true.
Got to admit, I lost interest and the whole post lost credibility with me once I read this line..
I will chime in to say it is not a mountain of "useless prerequisites."
I like to deal with an R.N. who hasn't dodged education.
But to answer the OP; no it's not IMO. As you can see with everyone fast tracking and reducing course work down to as little as possible I believe the people with degrees do better overall but employers feel if they have one that it's enough which puts an extra heavy burden on the person with the higher degree (speaking from personal experience).
My wife is a successful ICU RN (12 years) who holds a two year degree from a community college. Tuition was very reasonable and it has served her, her hospital and her patients well.
I really thnik that a dgrees value deopends and always has on the degree as far as work.Alot of jobs that didn't not require a degreee now do. Then itmore commo that advancemnt stops you at a poit without a degree.Alot of jobs even require associates degrees that the company started you out at the bottom and trained you , Basic trainig is more and more rare now days.Apprenticeship is pretty rare now days also.
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