More than 30% of American adults hold bachelor's degrees. That's a monstrous change, considering that only 11% of my generation of septuagenarians holds a bachelor's.
The report, tucked away on page 16 of the Times, is far more significant than its newspaper location suggests. Drill down into the statistics and there's a lot of fascinating information. Information which suggests that careers are changing significantly. Some for the good and some not so good.
After a relatively stagnant period between 1970 and 1990, the stats reflect an increase that began in the 1990s. Significant gains are represented by all groups, but blacks and Latinos still lag behind whites. What's not so good is that the gap between whites and the rest has even widened in the last decade.
The census figures are initially heartening.
As of last March, 30.4 percent of people over age 25 in the United States held at least a bachelor’s degree, and 10.9 percent held a graduate degree, up from 26.2 percent and 8.7 percent 10 years earlier.
The statistics bear out the growing lead of women in college degrees, especially since colleges have enrolled and graduated more women than mean. The historic male advantage in graduation rates is about to be a thing of the past, although salary differences between men and women certainly don't reflect that collegiate advantage.
In 2001, men held a 3.9 percentage-point lead in bachelor’s degrees and 2.6 percentage points in graduate degrees; by last year, both gaps were down to 0.7 percent.
It's no surprise that Asian-American are the best educated racial group: Asian-Americans remain the nation’s best-educated racial group, with 50.3 percent having bachelor’s degrees, and 19.5 percent holding graduate degrees.
Though this study didn't report on salaries, Asian-Americans have replaced Jews as the best paid in today's world. And, by the way, Asian-American Muslims are a significant factor in that high-wage world. As an aside, I've noticed that Asian-Americans are exceedingly aware of the best schools while most Midwestern college grads seem to have little interest. If, for example, I note that one of my daughters holds a Columbia University degree and another a U Chicago degree, there's a gasp from the Asian-American, and then a lot of questions. They want to know how, as a parent, I prepared them, what experiences did I provide for them, what high schools my kids went to, was it an International Baccalaureate school? Etc., etc.
In addition to the census statistics, the article alluded to results from the American Community Survey.
One of those, examining major fields of study, shows that taken together, engineering and science are the most common areas for bachelor’s degrees, representing 34.9 percent of the total.
The persistence of men in those fields is waning, a significant trend given that engineers and people with science backgrounds tend to be in high demand, and have above-average incomes. Among college graduates 65 or older, only 23 percent of those with degrees in science or engineering majors are women; among people 40 to 64, the proportion of women rises to 36 percent; among those 25 to 39, 45.9 percent are women.
The same report also found that engineers and science majors are most heavily concentrated on the East and West Coasts, with the highest percentages in the District of Columbia, California, Washington and Maryland, and the lowest in Southern and Plains states.
Two issues are of importance from the last set of statistics. First, Richard Florida's research on the hot areas for technology and other STEM vocations merits study by parents and recent grads in search of jobs. Having spent much of my life in the Midwest, I'm aware that leaving home for a job in another state is difficult for many. Still, if recent grads want job opportunities of significance, they'd best kiss mom and dad goodbye and head for where the jobs are.
Second, the extensive jobs study at Georgetown University's Center for Education and the Workforce (downloadable free here), argues that US competitive advantage will turn on science, technology, engineering and math expertise. The report is highly nuanced, recognizing, for example, that two-year grads will have opportunities in the tomorrow's world. The conclusion for parents with kids looking to college are broadened significantly beyond the typical conversation. To wit: major in a stem discipline, or, choosing not to major in a stem discipline, get a job in a company with core stem needs. The third approach is to attend a top school (you know the list of the top 25) and major in whatever you wish.