High school diploma vs college degree

Most of today's school counselors are very aware of the need for almost all high school graduates to seek some kind of postsecondary education that will help them succeed in the rapidly changing, high-tech society of the Information Age (Halperin, 1998). Most are also aware of the fact that, while only about 30% of new jobs predicted to be created in the next 10 years will require at least a bachelor's degree, more than 70% of parents seem to believe their child will fill one of those jobs (Parnell, 1985). When counselors try to interest both students and their parents in considering other options in addition to colleges offering bachelor's degree's, strong parental resistance is often encountered. In voicing their objections, many parents appear to be asking "What's the matter with my child? Why shouldn't he or she enroll in a college offering the bachelor's degree?" So long as parents continue to express this point of view, it will be very difficult for counselors to discuss other alternatives with students.

This article begins with a section that emphasizes the economic benefits of a bachelor's degree. A short discussion of both the limitations and the virtues of other kinds of postsecondary educational options follows. The basic purpose is to provide information that counselors can use to help both high school students and their parents become aware of and understand a wide variety of other kinds of postsecondary options also available for choice.

Education Pays

Figure 1 shows that a total of approximately 50,562,000 job openings are projected to become available during the 1996-2006 period (Charting the projections: 1996-2006, 1997, 1998). Of these, 21,944,000 (43.4%) will require only 2 to 3 weeks of short-term, on-the-job training and only 10,429,000 (20.6%) will require a bachelor's degree or more. Parents and students need help in understanding that, if the number of persons seeking college degrees greatly exceeds the number of job openings calling for such a degree, it is inevitable that many college graduates can expect to find that most of the jobs available to them do not require a college degree.

While the number of jobs expected to become available is greatest for occupations requiring only 2 to 3 weeks of on-the-job training, the rate of growth is greatest for occupations requiring at least a bachelor's degree. Further, this information clearly shows that all of the occupations requiring at least a bachelor's degree are expected to grow at a higher than average rate when compared to all occupations. The trend is clearly toward closer and closer relationships between education and employment. The validity of the expression "education pays" remains both high and positive.

The prediction that approximately 21 million of these expected 50+ million jobs will require only 2 to 3 weeks of short-term, on-the-job training would seem to be especially bothersome to school counselors. These are, by and large, the dead end, low pay jobs that never pay workers a comfortable income. If high school leavers seek employment without receiving postsecondary education of any kind, this is the type of job most open to them. Until and unless they obtain some kind of postsecondary education, they are unlikely to obtain what most persons would describe as "good jobs."

Some College, No Degree vs. the Associate Degree

The phrase some college, no degree, as defined by Hecker (1998) for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, includes both former and current students who have not yet completed either a bachelor's or an associate degree. It also includes workers who, while not working toward any degree, enrolled in one or more college-level courses, and persons who received some kind of certificate but were not enrolled in any degree program. This primary subpopulation is those persons who, after having enrolled in some kind of 2-year or 4-year college program, withdrew prior to completing it.

As shown in Table 1, Hecker (1998) reported median weekly earnings by sex for persons with various amounts of education. The largest differences for both men ($155) and for women ($119) in weekly earnings occurred when those with an associate degree were compared to those with a bachelor's degree. There is no doubt but that a positive relationship exists between level of education and weekly earnings. The smallest differences for both men ($41) and for women ($50) occurred when weekly earnings were compared for persons in the "some college, no degree" category and persons in the "associate degree" category.

For both men and women, persons in the "some college, no degree" category earned less, on the average, than did persons in the associate degree category. It is not clear why this is so. It is suspected this may be related, at least in part, to specific career skills acquired by associate degree persons as part of their degree requirements. It may also be due, in part, to the fact that many employers prefer to hire "completers" rather than "noncompleters."

Missing from Hecker's (1998) data are comparisons with what he calls "occupations that usually require completion of vocational training provided in postsecondary vocational schools." If these kinds of data were added, it is suspected that these sizable differences in median weekly income between men and women would be substantially reduced.

Community College vs. the Four-Year College

The often-quoted statistics showing that only about half of those embarking on a program leading to a bachelor's degree actually receive that degree within a 5-year period need to be carefully interpreted by counselors as they work with high school seniors and their parents. A publication on this subject produced by the National Center for Education Statistics (1996) shows that, for students with a goal of obtaining a bachelor's degree, 57% of those seeking that degree obtained it within a 5-year period. On the other hand, for those attempting to meet this goal by enrolling initially in a 2-year institution, only 7.9% obtained the bachelor's degree within a 5-year period. It is suspected that this may be due, in part, to a condition that many of those who first enter a community college program appear to make that decision primarily because of a lack of funds, not because they personally favored community colleges over colleges offering the bachelor's degree.

It seems safe to say that most community college students do not have a bachelor's degree as their primary goal. Community colleges are much more likely to be chosen by high school students and their parents primarily because of their various occupational education programs and the general education opportunities they offer.

Findings in Table 2 make it clear that postsecondary education is the primary path out of poverty (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1995). When education is measured in terms of expected job earnings over the work life of most persons, it seems clear "the more the better." For example, (a) high school graduates, on average, earn almost one and one-half times as much as high school dropouts; (b) persons who pursue some college work after high school but fail to obtain any degree do not earn much more, on average, than do high school graduates; (c) persons age 18 and over who have obtained an associate degree from a community college earn, on average, about $5,000 more annually than do persons with some college but no college degree. If viewed only from an economic point of view, the advantages of a bachelor's degree or more appear obvious.

The difference between the mean annual earnings of persons with an associate degree ($24,398) compared to those with a bachelor's degree ($32,629) is about the same as the difference between those with an associate degree ($24,398) compared to those with a high school diploma ($18,737). These differences are all sizable and important to consider.

A strong positive relationship exists between average job earnings and level of education. There is no doubt that, on average, college graduates have higher job earnings than do persons without a bachelor's degree. Another example illustrating this was reported by Cosca (1998). Cosca's data, shown in Table 3, reported median annual earnings for each of several education levels. While these reported earnings showed slightly different amounts from those reported in 1995, the general direction was the same. This is a clear example of the validity of the "education pays" motto.

Shelley (1996) published still another set of data justifying the claim that "education pays." She reported the median earnings of college graduates are expected to be $640,000 higher over the 40-year work life than for high school graduates. Further, she reported that the 25% of college graduates with a bachelor's degree who did not secure college-level job offers are expected to have lower salaries and less job satisfaction than those who did enter college-level jobs.