>It's true, but misleading.
>While the average student probably shouldn't have gone to college, the top grads can earn scads of money. Top engineering, law, computer science etc grads start with astronomical salaries and continue to earn a lot of money, if they want to work for it.
>
>That's not new.
>When I was in college, the average student probably shouldn't have been there.
>A grade of C means that you got 3 out of 10 things wrong.
>If you perform that way in the professional world you won't get very far.
>Those people should be doing things that are less demanding and have lower consequences for mistakes- hence lower compensation.

That is the point I was trying to make. If you look at the degree list you will see that if your degree doesn't have "engineering" or "computer" it probably isn't financially worth the investment unless it is a stepping stone to a professional career such as law or medicine. But, the universities paint such a great picture of the value of what I consider practically worthless degrees (financially) and convince young people to go deep in debt to get that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that is not there.
On a link from the U of Florida I saw the graph shown in the attachment( 2012 data but the principals are the same). Note that there is no line for technical training such as I mentioned in my original post - just a comparison between high school and college degree. On the same webpage you see:

-The earnings from an average graduate at University of Florida will surpass those of a high school graduate in 20 years.
They are talking about lifetime income but what about the time of difference in income during the first 20 years?
-Over 30 Years, a Degree at University of Florida is Worth $1,316,000
Not to mention that the non degree is worth $1,110,000
-Break Even In 3.2 Years at University of Florida
For this one I did rough calculations using their methods based on current data with a comparison degree v technical.
In my calculations I got 3 years for degree break even time - very close. For the technical/ lineman from the original post - at the end of 7 years the average lineman with the difference invested, As Earned , at 8% ( S&P avg for last 50 years) would be at $385,000. The average college graduate would be making $51,300 and the average lineman would be making $75,000.