"To accurately measure the earnings bump graduates receive thanks to their bachelor’s degree, Payscale takes this expected income of a college graduate over his

"To accurately measure the earnings bump graduates receive thanks to their bachelor’s degree, Payscale takes this expected income of a college graduate over his or her career and subtracts the total income they would have made during that time if they did not attend college. To do so, Payscale subtracts the median wage of a high school graduate over those 30 years as well as over the four years a college graduate spent attending college instead of working." "Accurately"? Rubbish. I don't see them controlling for a single confounding factor here. I'd love to see a study comparing college attendees with those who were accepted into college and did not attend (e.g. for financial or personal reasons). At least then you are controlling somewhat for ability, ambition and circumstance. My suspicion is that being "good enough" to get into a good college is sufficient to wipe out the wage differential for many fields of study, independent of the fact of attendance. Or, as Groucho might say, "I wouldn't go to a college that would have me as a student."