A college degree can be extremely valuable in the job market — nearly priceless. It pays to have a degree, but do grads know exactly how much? With this calculator, you’ll have a ballpark idea of how much your college degree could fetch you in terms of salary for your first job after graduation. The data shows that a college degree makes graduates earn $1.3 million more during their lifetimes than those without degrees.
Salary and career statistics for graduates with college degrees are often compared to their peers in the workforce. While these two groups may not be exactly alike, certain supporting statistics should shed some light on prospects for graduates as they enter the job market.
Average salary with college degree vs without
It’s never been more important to have a college degree now than ever before. On average, with a degree, one could expect to make nearly $10,000 a year more than someone without one. If you’d like to find more information about some of the jobs that are available for graduates with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and their respective salary ranges, take a look at the infographic below from GoEngineer:
To sum up, if you have a college degree relevant to your field, you can expect to earn an average of between $29K and $38K. If you don’t have a college degree, your salary will be lower than an average of about $22K. Whether or not to invest in a relevant degree depends on many factors and there’s no single answer for everyone.
With an increasingly competitive job market, it is no longer enough to have a college degree. According to Josh Wilson’s article, the average annual salary for a graduate with a bachelor’s degree was $40,487 in 2008. This is only slightly higher than the average salary of $35,547 for someone with a high school diploma. When compared with the average annual salary of $53,495 for a graduate with an advanced degree and the annual salary of $68,985 for experienced professionals with a master’s degree or PhD, it is easy to see why students are choosing to pursue more expensive and time-consuming majors in hopes of increasing their future earnings potential.
In the end, if you look at the numbers, it’s clear that college is worth it. Those who pursue a higher education usually make more money over their lifetime, and in a world where work is constantly changing and companies are looking for employees with more skills and intelligence, a college degree may be necessary. There will always be exceptions of course, but as an overall trend it’s something that can’t be ignored.
Getting a college education is an investment, and like any investment, it should be done with proper information. If you’re thinking about going to college and want to know whether or not you will get a return on that investment afterward, you might as well learn something in the process. With this chart, you can do just that.
