Comment by ketralnis | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ketralnis | Hacker News Reader

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> With a two-year community college degree, air traffic controllers can make $113,547, radiation therapists $76,627, dental hygienists $70,408, nuclear medicine technologists $69,638, nuclear technicians $68,037, registered nurses $65,853, and fashion designers $63,170, CareerBuilder.com reported in January.

They're not claiming that people holding the same job make more money with less education. They're saying it's possible to make more money on less education by targeting some specific 2-year-degree jobs, especially as compared to some lesser-paying 4-year-degree jobs.

And either way since they're not making the claim that it happens 100% of the time, your anecdotal evidence isn't really all that relevant

> They're saying it's possible to make more money on less education by targeting some specific 2-year-degree jobs, especially as compared to some lesser-paying 4-year-degree jobs.

Right, they are comparing very highest AS/AA holders to the average BS/BA holder. It's an interesting point, but it isn't quite as strong a point as the point the headline suggests.

Also, one thing I notice about the highest-paying of those jobs is that they require some sort of certification and continuing education / recurring training above and beyond a 2 year degree. In other words, the 2-year degree alone isn't sufficient to enter one of those careers that out-earns the average bachelor's holder. Additionally, the jobs cited are mostly in fields that are notoriously highly-paid (medicine, nuclear technology, etc). That's not to say that any particular high school student shouldn't look at community colleges.

As for anecdotal evidence, the article is full of it (comparing, for example, the community college and university graduates only in Tennessee, and comparing "technical" fields in Virginia CCs to all Virginia BS/BA graduates). Wikipedia has statistics from 2009 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_the_U...), which suggest that nationally BA/BS grads earn 30% more than AA/AS grads.

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