Do note that if you look at income data a little bit closer, you will notice that people with _only_ a bachelor's degree represent roughly 20% of every income b

Do note that if you look at income data a little bit closer, you will notice that people with _only_ a bachelor's degree represent roughly 20% of every income bracket, which implies there is no significance to just having a degree as it relates to income. That's probably not the right way to look at the data -- too many weird factors (what is the distribution in the brackets, how are the brackets defined, etc...). The best study that I've seen that breaks this out is a bit old (2002), but still probably relevant is from the US Census: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p23-210.pdf http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p23-210.pdf It shows that over a lifetime there is a significant benefit in having a bachelors. Furthermore, having a bachelors sets you up to get further degrees later in your career.