Where are all of the folks without college degrees?

[Jenny in Florida]

Earlier today, I was reading an article linked on the college board, which prompted me to go look up statistics about educational attainment in the U.S. And now I can't stop pondering this question:

 

Where does one find the 70% of the adult population who don't have college degrees?

 

I mean, I recognize that I live in a somewhat niche-y world. Starting with the people I "know" here, who are, for the most part, committed to providing rigorous educations for their children. For many years, I attended a church known for having a high population of professionals and educators. And I now work in education-related jobs that require a degree as the entry point.

 

With my lonely little bachelor's degree, I am often the least credentialed person in any professional or social group. And my husband, who doesn't have a degree, feels distinctly in the minority both socially and professionally.

 

It's easy to move through my life feeling like an undergraduate degree, at a minimum, is the norm. But, apparently, the reality is that only 29% of adults in the U.S. have bachelor's degrees. And only 8% have a master's. 

 

I think the reason this blows my mind a bit is that it's not like we're living some kind of "upscale" lifestyle. We rent a boring tract house in an older suburban neighborhood in a distinctly not-ritzy part of town. We drive used cars and have stalled our son getting his driver's license largely because the cost of adding him to our insurance is prohibitive. We buy most of our clothing from Target or off the clearance racks at mid-range department stores. We do know some people who own large, fancy homes and buy their teens new cars and make significant donations to local organizations and even a few who belong to whatever the modern equivalent woudl be of a country club, but by far most of the folks we know are living similar lives. It hardly feels like we move in some kind of rarefied atmosphere.

 

So, where are all of those people who didn't go to/didn't finish college? What are they doing for a living? In what ways are their lives different from mine? Do you know many people who don't have degrees?

 

Please know that there is not one speck of judgement or disdain implied here. As I said, my husband doesn't have a degree, I'm just fascinated because we move through our absolutely normal, pretty modest lives feeling like oddities because he has no degree and I have only a bachelor's, and I'm having some kind of cognitive dissonance attempting to accept that a large majority of the population is on the other side of that fence.

 

[vonfirmath]

I don't have a Bachelor's Degree.  I work with a lot of folks without bachelor's degree (because we are in the trades). I do not know the status of degrees in people around me but I certainly don't get the feeling they are all highly educated. The degrees just don't come up in conversation.

[nevergiveup]

Central Indiana here.

My husband has 4 degrees, I have one.

Neither of my two children will have one.

Many people we see on a daily basis have none.

[Slache]

I'm a stay at home mom and church secretary. My husband does manual labor at Oracle and makes over twice minimum wage. We would be doing quite well if not for our debt, but we're working on that.

 

My best friend (22) works as a teachers aid and her fiance is a mechanic.

 

My best male friend (26) is a fire fighter and his fiance runs a day care.

 

Another friend is hair dresser and makes a ton.

 

None of these people went to college. I regret graduating high school because it never benefited me and my true education didn't begin until after graduation.

[Ms.Ivy]

Trades, retail and agriculture.  At least, that's how it is around where I live.  The Target employee, the mechanic, the cable guy, the day care provider, the office manager.  

[LisaKinVA]

My mother, mother-in-law, one brother-in-law, and two brothers. All have some college,though. One of my brothers, and BIL are both less than a semester from finishing and just never did. Our family is 50% with degrees, one person with a master's, and three also having special credentials. Two of us have two bachelor's degrees.

[EmseB]

I have an associate's, will most likely finish my bachelor's in December. I've been out of high school for almost 20 years. My parents made too much for significant financial aid, too little to send me off to college, and I knew that for me community college would have been a waste of money. I just wasn't motivated. So I joined the military. The only reason I'm getting a degree now is to use up my G.I.Bill money that I would feel sick about going to waste. Well, that's not the only reason, but it's a big part of it.

 

I believe in a rigorous education for my kids, but I don't necessarily know if they will go to college.

[Wheres Toto]

I work for a company where the majority of people have degrees. The administrative assistants are probably the only ones who don't (although I do).   In my department, about 30% have masters or PhD's but that's because we are medical education so it's not typical.

 

If I look at my extended family about 1/2 have degrees, mostly those in my generation (I'm 46) or the younger generation.  Of my mother and her siblings (9 total) I don't think any of them have degrees but some of their spouses do.  ETA:  They work a variety of jobs.  Some are in trades (construction/contractor), a couple own their own companies (one is a large fairly well known at least for this area), a couple are in jobs they've held for a long time which may now require a degree.  Now that I think of it, a couple are nurses or nurses aides so they may have at least the two year LPN.

 

 

 

[Slojo]

The majority of my extended family does not have a bachelor's degree. The majority of my professional and social peers have at least a bachelor's degree, but perhaps because of my "first generation in college" status, I have a fairly wide mix of friends and acquaintances. So "family" and "buddies from the old neighborhood" is the primary way in which the 70% majority shows up in my life. Work and college friends are the primary way in which the 30% show up in my life -- you really can't work in my profession without at least a BA, and even the admin team tends to have at least a BA. I have two master's degrees, and work primarily in arenas in which a master's degree is the starting point, and many folks have PhDs. 

 

Church is mixed -- my church is very economically diverse, and that ranges.

 

My mom emphasized that we were to be able to relate to "the janitor" and "the CEO."  

[Guest]

My mother works in home health (she goes into homes and helps cook, clean, run errands).

[Arcadia]

Retail and fast food here are still hiring high school graduates. Cleaning agencies too are hiring anyone willing to work. There are still jobs like dental assistants, ultrasound technicians, lab technicians that require an associates degree but but do not require a bachelors.

[EKS]

Charles Murray discusses this topic in his book Coming Apart.  Regardless of what you think of Murray, it is an interesting book.

[catz]

It's definitely a niche thing!  You went to a UU right?   One time someone fainted in our UU church.  5 (FIVE!) doctors stood up to help.  LOL.  (she was fine BTW). 

 

I live in a city and there are a good hand full of colleges within 30 minute drive - one is walking distance from my door.  In the circles we regularly walk, people are highly educated.  But I think there are neighborhoods and niches where that is definitely not the norm.  Heck, many of the parents in our secular homeschool community are very highly educated. 

[SquirrellyMama]

Trades, retail and agriculture.  At least, that's how it is around where I live.  The Target employee, the mechanic, the cable guy, the day care provider, the office manager.  

 

You can't assume these people don't have degrees. I worked at Target out of college. I ran the front end, and you had to have a degree.  After having kids I started a home daycare. A lot of SAHMs with degrees are starting daycares. Many daycare providers are getting ECE degrees.

 

I don't know about office manager positions, but I would think most  would require degrees now. At least an AA.

 

Kelly

[Orthodox6]

Our eldest completed the "core curriculum" at the CC.  He now is a fireman for one of the best local departments.  Happy as a clam, married to the love of his life, a happy father, and just bought a house.

 

Remaining information in a subsequent post because system won't let me cut/paste from there into here.

[EKS]

You can't assume these people don't have degrees. 

 

Statistically speaking, the odds are that any person you meet will not have a 4 year degree (7 in 10).  Of course, in many (most?) communities, those statistics are skewed in one direction or the other.

[Starr]

Here's a few. How many people it takes to provide our groceries. A friend of ours is part of the following

 

 

 

And likely most, not all,  who provides a service, fixes your car, builds your house, cuts your hair, jobs that assist the college educated, restaurants, lawn service, some computer folk, office assistants, house cleaners, ... I think it shows how we tend to drift into living amongst people with common background.  

[lailasmum]

I have a couple of friends without degrees but most of my similarly and older aged friends have degrees because it was quite cheap to attend uni in the UK when we were school leavers. My brother doesn't have a degree, he works in IT support.

[mommymilkies]

Dh is a professor.  I'd say it's mixed pretty 50/50 with people we know.  I have expired healthcare certificates and I'm something like 1 class away from obtaining my Bachelor's Degree (we moved due to dh's work before I could finish).  Dh has advanced degrees.  Only two people in my maternal family have degrees past high school.  Dh's family has 3 people with degrees.  Many of our friends are musicians and artisans, so degrees are not really common there. That doesn't mean they're not successful. I think I know far more people with degrees who do NOT use their degree or work in their degree field than do use them.

[Pink and Green Mom]

I think times have really changed.  Neither of my parents - and none of my mom's 6 siblings nor my dad's 4 siblings - have college degrees.  Yet my dad and two of his siblings held high level, senior executive positions at major companies (AT&T, Exxon, and Cox Communications).  So I think that perhaps that 70 percent figure accounts for a lot of older people who didn't need degrees to advance through companies back in the 70s, 80s, and even to some extent the 90s.

 

I have one friend/acquaintance who doesn't have a college degree and one that I'm not sure about.  The rest all have them.  This would be people in their early to mid 40s age range.

[Lolly]

Most of my extended family do not have anything beyond a high school degree. They work in everything from real estate to checkers at the grocery store. Most manage stores in some capacity. Many hold two jobs. Some of the people working in jobs that now require degrees to enter do not have them because they were already employeed in the field before it became a requirement. I know many for whom this is true. My dh is about 6 h ours short of his degree. He dropped out his last semester because he missed too much class. He was going in when they called him to work instead. He has gone back and finished up some classes, but he really hated it. Once again, he had rather be working. He is one of those who worked positions that now require degrees, then he started his own company. (You would be surprised how many self- startup types don't have a degree.)

[Word Nerd]

DH joined the military after one year of college and never went back to complete coursework for a degree. He did an apprenticeship/extended paid internship many years ago and has a professional license in his field even without the degree (there is still a continuing education requirement to renew it). My sisters and I have degrees, as does my dad, but my mom does not.

[Library Momma]

Most people I know have a degree of some sort as well.  Even the SAHMs I know all have MBAs or some sort of advanced degree,  My parents went to college (they met there) and even my grandfather who would be 107 if he was still with us went to college.  Even though they were not wealthy, growing up in NYC made it easier for them.  If your grades were good enough CUNY was free.

 

Most people I know today fall into two categories.  People who went to public or private school and then went to college, and people who went to a vocational high school and work in a trade.  I don't think I could name one person I know that works in a trade that did not attend a vocational high school.  

[purplejackmama]

My non degreed hubby spent years building a successful construction company then sold it. He now works in the insurance industry. He earns an income that treats us all very well.

 

He has done very well for himself (and our family) with his entrepreneurial spirit, hard work ethic and never quits attitude.

[PeacefulChaos]

:seeya:

 

I don't have a degree.  I went to college for 1.5 years before deciding it was 1. too expensive and 2. I wasn't 100% sure that the program I was in was exactly what I wanted to do forever and ever.  

After quitting college, I worked a few odd jobs before moving and working part time.  Then I went to community college for a semester (knowing I wasn't going to go beyond that, I just wanted to take some gen ed classes because I was bored) while I was pregnant with Link.  Once I had him I became a SAHM.  That's what I've been doing since.

 

DH doesn't have a degree, either.  He went to college for 2.5 years and then stopped.  I don't really know why he decided to stop other than cost and time.  

He worked odd jobs before we moved, when he went back to construction with his dad.  Then he had his own construction business until everything went downhill and no one was building houses anymore.  That's when he got his current job; he's a supervisor of maintenance at a residential care facility.

 

Two of DH's brothers don't have degrees, either.  One is a mechanic (the best in town, and I'm not being biased) who got tons of on the job training from the other best mechanic in town.   :lol:  He started going to the guy's shop to learn, unpaid, as a teenager (his dad set it up for him).  His wife doesn't have a degree - she's also a SAHM (ETA: forgot that she does work as a sub in another job, but not on a daily basis).   The other brother without a degree is an assistant manager at WalMart - he started working at our local WM when he was in high school and has stayed since.  His wife does have a degree... several, actually.  Right now she's working on her Ph.D I think?  Or maybe it's just her licensing she's getting now?  I have no idea.  I know she has a bachelor's 1-2 masters, and maybe something else.  Idk.  I can't remember.  She's also a SAHM of 4.  

 

One of DH's brothers has a degree, but I believe it's an associates.  He works in IT.  His wife has a degree in teaching - she stays at home and homeschools.

 

Let's see... I'm trying to think of other people I know lol.  I know a fair amount of college graduates - mostly in the healthcare profession.

 

I think it's interesting, because now it seems that you can't do anything without a college degree the way you used to be able to.  It's unfortunate, tbh...some things just don't require a degree to be good at them.  I think about my grandpa, who worked for companies for years and moved up through the ranks until he retired well - now, I don't think they'd let people do that to the extent that he could.  Same thing with my uncle - he's not a college graduate, but he has done the same thing.  I'm pretty sure that if he left his job, they'd be looking for someone with a degree (probably a masters) to replace him.

 

I also find college to be a bit of a conundrum, because who really knows what they want to do for the rest of their life when they are 17-18?  And now college has gotten so expensive... Idk.  It all doesn't really make sense to me.  Not that I'm against college at all!  I just think that if someone doesn't know what they want to do, they have no business going to college for anything more than their gen. ed. classes.  And those shouldn't be done somewhere that's going to cost a ton of money.

 

As far as our lives, I'd say they probably look about the same to everyone else's.  

[SproutMamaK]

In my experience:
-manager at an national insurance company (tw year college degree, worked his way up; not an older person, he's 35)
-business owner, industrial manufacturing
-insurance broker
-PSW
-housekeeper
-hairdresser
-cabinet maker
-plumber
-resort manager
-quarry worker
-firefighter
-welder
-mechanic
-contractor

Oddly enough, the family members and friends that I know who do have college degrees actually make the least money, now that I think of it. One works as a librarian in a university. The others are teachers. Compared to many of the above professions, they have significantly less income.

[jar7709]

My DH started and but did not finish two degree programs. He's now production manager for a small maufacturing business, and you would be unlikely to guess he doesn't have any degrees. (I have two.)

[Matryoshka]

I think I live in one of the educated bubbles.  Almost everyone I know, especially my age or younger, has a 4-yr degree.  My grandparents didn't go to college, nor my parents' siblings, but my parents both did.  Of my aunts, one was a secretary and the other got married and had 12 kids.  Her husband owned and ran a lot of real estate.  My mom's brother was a postman.  But those are all people now in their 70's or 80's.

 

I did have a few friends when I worked in high tech that didn't have degrees but were self-taught and very good at what they did, and it didn't seem to be the impediment to promotion I'm hearing about here.  I doubt that would fly today,  One of them ended up getting her degree later, though. They'd all be in their 50's now.

 

But the guy that refinished our floors used to work on Wall Street...  wanted out of the rat race.  Even some of the immigrant housekeepers I've met have degrees back home that they just can't use here.  All of my homeschooling mom friends have degrees.  In my high school and the one in my town, 99% of kids go on to college, most of them a 4-year.

 

I mean, of course they're out there, but it's sure not 7 out of 10 people I meet, or anywhere near it.  I've often wondered the same as the OP - where are they all, and what are they doing?

[73349]

Since college enrollment rates went up a lot in the late 20th century, I'd say many of them are probably retired.

 

Among family/acquaintances who do not have a bachelor's degree and are still working, I can think of...

a delivery truck driver (high school diploma)

retail employees (HSD)

a bartender (some college)

a guy who makes fancy car parts (HSD + technical training)

a human resources/corporate training worker (HSD, one semester at CC, technical training)

a salesman (associate's degree)

a clerk in local government (HSD)

a high school dropout who works at a car wash.

 

 

[Guest]

I have not read other replies.

 

I have felt surprised when reading those statistics, too, because I have always felt like a second-class citizen because I don't have a bachelor's. But, here's some things to remember:

 

1) the presumption of getting at least a bachelor's is pretty recent in history. Among my parent's generation, MANY people did not obtain a BS/BA. My parents did not go to college at all; my ILs did not, either. My FIL was a merchant marine, who then got training and licensing as a plumber. My MIL learned some secretarial skills from a govenment program and worked at a govenment office. So, you have a large proportion of the older population, especially retired people, who did not go to college.

 

2) many people have non-college training or certificate program licensing. Beauticians, real estate agents, nurses, hygeinists, vet assitants, day care provider, flight attendant, truck driver, etc.

 

3) tradespeople, of course. dH is a Master Plumber. He went to college, but did not complete a degree, because he was already working with his dad and decided it made more sense to do what he was already good at and not write term papers, which he is not good at. One of my nephews also did something like this; he started a construction type of business and quit college.

 

4) some people never really work the typical way. Maybe they sell cars, or they build websites, or they sell dog biscuits made from scratch. Some either don't want to complete college or are too constrained by reality to carry it out, so they just come up with something.

 

I actually know lots of people who either did not complete college, or never went to begin with.

[The Girls' Mom]

East TN.  Only a handful of people I know in our area have degrees.  My mother never even finished high school, neither did one of my brothers.  I am the first in my family to attend college, and I am a 39 yr old freshman ;)  My kids will be the first in dh's family to get a degree.  (I think....actually dh's brother may have an associates from a tech school)

 

The vast majority of people in my area are blue collar workers without degrees, with a large number that did not even graduate high school.

[Carrie12345]

Without sitting down to make an actual list, I'd estimate the people I know are 50/50, so quite a bit higher than the national average.  But I live in an area where much of the economy is based on traditionally un-degreed work, so I should technically know more without, but I don't like to socialize any more than I have to.  :coolgleamA:

[Ms.Ivy]

I think people in college-educated circles can tend to forget about trade licenses.  Most of my un-educated family and friends have licenses to work in the following jobs, but no degrees: 

 

insurance

firefighting

highway patrol

correctional officer

sheriff deputy

general contractor

kitchen and bath remodeling

automotive mechanic

welding

esthetician

oil industry

 

More family members work in the military, in collections, and in retail.  

 

I worked as an office manager in a non-profit and ran the internship program without a degree.  I worked my way up.  I know that all the interns I trained went on to get hired for good jobs without degrees, because sometimes experience can mean more than a degree.  I don't know if it is still that way, but I have the feeling it's not, and I want my kids to get degrees.  

 

[J-rap]

Most of my friends and family have degrees, but I know plenty who don't.  One of my nephews (no degree) is a top tech guy at Target Corporation!  Another nephew and his wife also do not have degrees, and they work at an insurance company.  They started at the bottom, and are working their way up.  They do very well, just bought a nice home, expecting their first child, etc.  Neighbors on both sides of us do not have degrees.  One of them works as a security guard.  I'm not sure what our new neighbors do, but they get up very early and go to bed very early, so I'm thinking they work at one of the factories in our town.  One of my daughters is 22 and decided not to go the college route, for now.  She is a musician.  I have one lonely degree too, and my husband has many.

[Mrs. B]

I did not read any articles about statistics. If the included population includes older generations and 1st generation immigrants or refugees in the US, I would think 30% of the population with atleast a Bachelor's degree is quite high.

 

I only have an associate's degree, but in a field that pays a decent salary. When dh and I both worked, I received around the same pay that my dh got paid for his bachelor's degree career field. We had the same years of experience compared side by side before I became a SAHM a few years ago. We were both the 1st college degree graduates within our families. My side of the family, including extended relatives, was always on the poorer side (living off gov't aid on and off through the years). His side of the family lived in small rural towns, but lived middle class for that environment. His grandgrandfathers, without degrees and not professionals, had awesome pension plans with generous retirement and medical benefits for themselves and their SAHM spouses. They would have struggled making it in a growing city's economy though.

 

I predict our upcoming majority BA or BS degree and higher related society won't be richer than the 2-3 previous generations that had less college education on average. Mainly due to lack of pension plans and medical benefits that used to cover employee's and their spouses from retirement to death.

 

As far as knowing around 70% of the population without college degrees, that depends on where you live. To live in a vinyl siding, 1600-ish sq ft, concrete slab, cheaply made, tract home in our modest (yet low crime) suburb and drive 2 used cars requires a decent salary in our city. Our city is average COL. I don't see how all the young late 20 or early 30 something one income couples in our neighborhood afford it! It's not for me to figure out, though. Short vent and a tangent from OP: Many of them are in church ministry at large cool modern churches with a salary much nicer than my dh's decent salary after 20 years experience in his college degree related job. Go figure, evidently being hip and cool and Christian pays a lot at our area churches (being able to strum a guitar is an added plus). Still trying to figure that one out . Back to the OP: We have lived here for over 10 years, but if we were starting out it would take 2 middle class incomes to afford the mortgage or rent for our current home. For those in our neighborhood that don't fit the mold for church staff at a local trendy church, a college degree graduate or being a successful business owner is the norm. Oh, we did have drug dealers next to us once that didn't have college degrees, and they were able to afford to live here and drive new luxury cars on their drug earnings, until they got busted.

 

When I worked, the majority of the employees were support staff that did not have college degrees. The same for my husband's job. He works in an office, but most the company's employees work on the lumber yard or deliver lumber to customers in positions that do not even require HS diplomas. Most of my coworkers without degrees lived in rural areas about 20-45 minutes outside the city or lived in areas of town with lower COL.

 

Examples in the workforce:

 

For every doctor or nurse in a hospital; there numerous aides, receptionists, record keepers, lab techs, housekeeping, dietary staff,etc....

 

In a courtroom: for every judge or lawyer; there are recorder people, security guards, paralegals (thinking associate degree for that one), housekeepers, receptionists, etc....

 

At a retail or grocery store: for every owner or top manager; there are many more checkout clerks, stockers, baggers, etc...

 

For every principal or school teacher; there are possibly more aides, housekeepers, cafeteria staff, and office workers collectively employed by the school. I could be off on that example. Teachers may make up the majority at a school.

[Tap]

None of my nor my husbands siblings have degrees.

Brother1 goes from job-to-job. He has done construction and was a mechanic.  Last I knew he was fighting wild fires, 

SIster1 is in medical office management

Sister2 is a home health aide

Sister3 goes from job-to-job. Entry level, minimum wage type jobs. Last I knew she was a home health aide but she is disabled now.

Sister4 married rich.

Sister5 works in retail I think.

Brother2 is a musician.

I don't have a degree and work as a pharmacy technician.

 

 

My husband is a district manager and doesn't have a degree, but he would earn a lot more with one.  Some companies won't even look at his resume without at least a BS.

His brother1 is an automotive painter 

His brother2 goes from job-to-job but has a helicopters license. 

 

 

My son already has 2 bachelors and earns $10-15hr (multiple jobs)

DD16 is considering the medical field, so she will have at minimum a BS, and maybe an MD.

 

 

 

[JudoMom]

Neither of my parents do.  My Dad is sells & designs dust collection systems for various businesses.  My Mom ran a law office for 20 years before she retired.  My brother doesn't have a degree, either, but he makes 6 figures in IT security for a major corporation. 

 

I don't have a degree, either.  My only adult jobs have been a Print Production Coordinator and a Church Administrative Assistant.  I actually gave up a full scholarship to move across country and get married, and I don't regret it.
 

[Dmmetler]

My DD's herp world is divided between professionals (herpetologists, ecologists,biologists, and zoologists, veterinarians, vet techs, plus breeders, pet store owners and other related careers) and amateurs (school cafeteria manager, accountant, target loss prevention, sign shop owner, military, still in school). Educational backgrounds range from PhD to dropped out of high school and joined the Army during Vietnam. And some of the most knoweldgeable field herpers or those with encyclopedic knowledge on a specific species are those with little formal education. I've heard people who can't string together a grammatical sentence give detailed explanations of genetics and selective breeding, and if you want to know how to build and come up with amazing bio active terraria, you want to ask the guy who spends his day job doing offset printing.

 

It's really neat to see-and I figure it's a good lesson for DD.

[JumpyTheFrog]

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html

 

37% of the population is under 18 or 65 and up. 

[Orthodox6]

DH has a Ph.D.  His parents completed grades four and six, respectively. 

I have a masters and 2/3 of a second, incomplete masters degree.  My father has two undergraduate degrees, my mother had one.

Our eldest, I already wrote about. 

Our second holds a B.A. plus non-degree 36 hours of graduate school.

Our third is on path toward a B.S. that actually makes money.

Our fourth is in high school, strongly desiring to major in nursing.

 

Our close friends are all over the map, ranging from high school completion to (probably the most extreme) one with both an M.D. and a Ph.D.

 

Friendship is not dependent upon external credentials!

[rebcoola]

FWIW

 

My husband and I both have some college he dropped out to go in the navy and works in the Nucluear field, I simply put off college because I didn't want to waste my money when I didn't know what I wanted to do, life happened and I doubt I ever will go to college.

 

We have 3 other couples we are close to two of the husbands have advanced degrees, 2 of the wives have bachelor's but are SAHM's, One husband is in the family construction business no degree and 1 wife no degree also a SAHM. 

 

 I am the only person in my family 5 siblings and parents who doesn't have a degree.  My husband's brother is the only person in a very large extended family that has a degree.

[Mergath]

I don't even know where I fit in when people ask this. I have no degrees, but six years of university credits (with excellent grades, thank you very much).  So very well educated, but most people don't seem to think that matters if you don't have your piece of paper. "I don't care how much you actually learned in college, just show me your degree!" Lol. What can I say? I was interested in too many things and there are only so many hours in a day. I'm only two classes from an English degree and not much further from an Anthropology degree, but as a SAH homeschooling mom, I'm not feeling much of a pressing need to complete my degrees any time soon. Dd certainly isn't asking for my credentials before I teach her second grade math. ;)

 

As for my circle, my two best friends both have advanced degrees, my immediate family has zero college education, and dh tried going to a community college once but hated it and quit after a couple weeks. I have a lot of acquaintances who have two-year degrees.

[MomatHWTK]

Many of the folks who are growing your food, building your stuff, delivering your stuff, unloading your stuff, fixing your stuff and taking care of your needs. You know, the backbone of the country that keeps everything moving and working. :auto:

[redsquirrel]

In my experience:

-manager at an national insurance company (tw year college degree, worked his way up; not an older person, he's 35)

-business owner, industrial manufacturing

-insurance broker

-PSW

-housekeeper

-hairdresser

-cabinet maker

-plumber

-resort manager

-quarry worker

-firefighter

-welder

-mechanic

-contractor

 

Oddly enough, the family members and friends that I know who do have college degrees actually make the least money, now that I think of it. One works as a librarian in a university. The others are teachers. Compared to many of the above professions, they have significantly less income.

 

Does this person have an actual MLS degree? Or does she or he work in a library but have a 4 year degree? I have several librarians in the family who work at universities and they all earn a solid middle class income, well beyond a plumber or firefighter or a public school teacher.  But they have graduate degrees. In order to be an actual librarian you need to have an MLS degree (although sometimes the university is willing to hire someone with a different graduate degree).  And depending on the University the librarian must have a second graduate degree in their areas of study.  My sister has an MLS and a MS in Public Health. She is a Health Services librarian, so she works in a medical library.  A librarian in a law library is expected to have a JD.

 

t also depends on how the university classifies their librarians. Some call them staff and only a MLS is necessary, but some consider them faculty and require a second Master's Degree or a PhD for employment. My sister is a librarian but is also faculty so she does have a teaching component to her job and she is expected to publish, just like any other professor.

 

 

[EKS]

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html

 

37% of the population is under 18 or 65 and up. 

 

The bachelor's degree statistic is for people age 25+.  So it includes the older crowd but not those under 18.

[Mommy22alyns]

I don't have a degree, but I have college credits (just not as many as Mergath and Plum Crazy!).  I would like to go back to school after the girls are graduated.  There were a lot of unhappy circumstances that prevented me from attending immediately following high school, and I made a deliberate choice to become a SAHM instead of continuing a technical degree.

 

So yeah... like Mergath said, I'm not uneducated, I just don't have that piece of paper.  And that's why I hate that a bachelor's is practically required for the most menial positions anymore.  There are plenty of intelligent, motivated, qualified individuals who (for whatever reasons) don't have 4-year degrees.  Anyway, off my soapbox.   :p

[Guest]

I'm not adding to the list of "where are the non-degreed"--but wanted to pipe up and say that there are a lot of people without college degrees who have some other kind of post-high school education/training.  Sometimes they learned a trade on the job, and it really takes about as much time as a BA...and sometimes these people end up with better paying jobs than those with college degrees.  

 

I have to say that i was kind of surprised at the 70/30 split...I thought it was more like 60/40...

 

 

[Loowit]

I have an AA which isn't worth much from what I hear.  It is a transfer degree from a community college.  I do have over 4 years of college, just never completed my degree.

 

DH, who has college credits but no degree, is working as a Senior Network Engineer in IT.  He is fortunate that he has a hard to find skill set that is very sought after, so they are willing to take his years of experience in the field.

 

Neither of his siblings finished college either.  They both went less than 2 years.  Both have gone through quite a few jobs over the years and DH's brother seems to get laid off frequently.  They so things in sales, project management. 

 

My parents never finished their degrees because they wanted to get married and settle down.  Dad was a Vietnam vet and got enough college that he was hired as a mechanic.  My mom worked at a diner until my sister came along.  She hasn't worked since.

 

A lot of people around here without degrees work a manual labor type jobs.  We used to have a huge timber industry but that isn't the case anymore, so they get factory jobs, work security, or things like that.  If they want to get into management they either have to know someone or go back to school for training.  When I was in college years ago we had a lot of displaced workers in classes trying to get a degree so they would be more marketable.

[Cottonwood]

Many of the folks who are growing your food, building your stuff, delivering your stuff, unloading your stuff, fixing your stuff and taking care of your needs. You know, the backbone of the country that keeps everything moving and working. :auto:

 

This.  took the words out of my mouth.

 

And, someone mentioned the non-degreed in their life oddly making more than the degreed...same here.  My DH has 3 degrees and before retiring recently (at 40 from military..job hunting now) made just over six figures.  My brother who not only has no degree but no secondary training, works in a trade, is a sales tech in that trade and made $130,000 last year plus a 'monumental bonus' of which he didn't share the figure. I'd say that's about what I'm seeing across the board in my life.  No one on my side of the family has a degree, but plenty of us have technical training that took us almost as long.  LOL  None in Dh's side either, other than him.  Those family members w/o degrees that have shared their #'s, shock me!  They are making BANK.  Degrees just don't offer the security they used to from my perspective.   

[Guest]

I have no degree. I know many happily married women with none. A few guys, too, but less so in this area, because it's pretty affluent. So the SAHM thing tends to lent itself to women with no degrees and men with one or several.

 

Lots of trades have certification instead of degrees. Lots of military, too, especially around here. Many don't complete degrees until retirement. My brother had a heck of a time getting his done because they kept moving him around, doing training, or flat out deploying him which kept interrupting finishing courses. He used the VA bill to finish up when he retired from active service, though. His wife, however, didn't avail herself of the same bill. She is a manager on the night shift at a Casino making quite good money - no degree.

 

My step mom has no degree, my dad has an AA. They're technically pulling in decent six figure salaries, before they spend it on timeshares and reinvesting in their business. My stepdad only has a Bachelors and has worked in the upper echelons of telecommunications companies, before the tech bubble caused major downsizing and he went into consulting, then eventually became a general contractor doing remodels in California. Again, great money, no big flashy degree.

 

It varies quite wildly, but I've been surrounded by highly successful people with limited or no college. My husband's families has been a notable exception to my experience - each one of them has a masters at a minimum, several have multiple degrees.