These lack numbers of those individuals that did not attend college. What are their starting salaries upon entering the workforce? Then, I would suggest the inclusion of a distribution salaries for college graduates compared to non-college graduates over time. (Furthermore, break this down into STEM, business, and liberal arts majors and perform the aforementioned comparison again; perform again with bachelor's, masters, and Ph.D). In conjunction with this, include a salary distribution of the total population of a given country that is the subject of analysis. This is a lot of work, but I am sure these data will skew conclusions into another direction upon comparing the averages. Moreover, all of these data is required to support the conclusion that “college is not worth it”; without these data the conclusions in this graphic are groundless because there is no control group to compare against, all that is on this graphic is a jumble of numbers.

What's wrong with Canada?

What about those who really, really want to run a winery or manage a bowling alley? Should they just go fuck themselves?

this makes me D:

What is so wrong with Bowling Industry Management, Winemaking or Canadian Studies? Some people know exactly what they want. If they really want to study something very specific like that, then they should be able to.  If someone chose a major because they thought it was easy, than that's wrong. Otherwise, its fine.

Simple response to this: people with college educations are *much* more likely to experiment with kinky sex.

I'm going to be a retail store manager!

Thank god I majored in Latin and not English!

yes, education is a great thing, but when it comes to investing thousands in it just to learn, esp. when it involves getting duped by administrators who don't give a tulip what happens to you, one might understandably consider buying an encyclopedia set a better way to get clever than going to uni.

This is the worst thing for a person seriously considering dropping out of University.

Statistics are interesting as they show us various trends however the data truly only apply to the sample group that was studied. We can not always assume that a small sample is representative of the population at large. While I can certainly attest to there being a number of students who are accurately represented by the statistics that have been prepared, I can also use a different sample group and give you a completely different set of statistics. As an adult student, I have many students I associate with who spend no time each week partying and 20 or more hours per week studying. Does that mean all students do that? Absolutely not! We need to be careful when evaluating this kind of data to make sure we understand what cross-section of individuals are sampled to produce the data. I love math and numbers…but I also realize that data can be manipulated in ways that can make it say nearly anything a writer wants it to say to validate their argument(s). I think as a general rule I would say that it is seldom a waste of time when an individual wants to enhance their life with more education - regardless of what setting that education takes place in!

1. How many of the college drop outs continue their education at some point in the future? 2. Although that money is lost to the individuals, it's not 'wasted'. A decent portion of that money may come from savings or long term investments that otherwise is fairly dormant in the economy—by spending the money, it helps the overall economy by boosting (no matter how slightly) the velocity of money. 3. What does a Ferrari F430 do for earning potential? Maybe showing the dividends or mean earnings from investing the money, and adding that to the average salary of a high school graduate would be more enlightening. 4. Median starting salary is nice, but what about 10 years into their careers? If someone stays at their starting salary for 17 years, then there are bigger problems than just public vs. private education. 5. The next five points don't separate public vs. private education, which would be interesting to see. 6. These classes that sound so silly often are the most enlightening to students and round out their knowledge base which makes them more interesting people on the whole. 7. Average Education costs are too high right now. The infrastructure needed to compete for potential students is staggering, and probably accounts for a massive percentage of the tuition.  8. Yada, yada, yada.

Now hold on a minute here. I majored in Sociology at an elite, private institution and I can manage the FUCK out of your retail store. Booyaah!

The difference in pay between men and women is the most depressing. I was forced to quit my first job after college because I couldn't afford a car to get me to and from work. That extra 25-30% would have made the difference for me to finance one.

I think its sad because, well its true.

This doesn't point out the difference in wage earnings of high school grads versus college grads of a lifetime. This is shortsighted data and, for the most part, bullshit.

*sigh* There's like a million things wrong with all the stats they point out, but whatever.

Never have I been prouder to be a high school dropout.

man, fuck you chart!

i now feel justified for being a stoner that still lives with ma and pa.