> In recent years, the average college graduate with a bachelor's degree earned $78,000, compared to $45,000 for those with only a high school diploma. This mea

> In recent years, the average college graduate with a bachelor's degree earned $78,000, compared to $45,000 for those with only a high school diploma. This means a typical college graduate earns a premium of well over $30,000, or nearly 75 percent. https://www.higheredtoday.org/2019/06/10/study-finds-college-degree-remains-solid-investment/ https://www.higheredtoday.org/2019/06/10/study-finds-college... You can argue that the effect isn’t causal, it’s just that people who are destined to be high-earners also are the type of people who go to college. This doesn’t seem super unlikely to me, considering in many cases college is literally a socially-accepted 4 year long vacation from all responsibility on daddy’s dime (and subsidized by government loans). If you told me that people who had the means to afford that at 17 made more money in their lifetimes, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest. But that’s just a theory and there is something to be said for the “college actually does increase your earning potential” hypothesis, and if it does by even half of that estimate I quoted above, the average in-state tuition would pay itself off in just 5-10 years. It’s not as bad of an investment as some would have you believe