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A college education is an investment - both for the student and society. As the level of educational attainment rises, so do earnings.
- The average Bachelor's recipient earns over $700,000 more than a high school graduate during a 40-year career, according to 1990 New York-area Census figures. A person who has earned an Associate's degree can expect to earn over $230,000 more
than someone who has only finished high school.
- The U.S. Census Bureau recently reported that the mean annual earnings for persons 18 and over varied radically according to the level of the terminal degree. Annual income for workers without a high school degree was $13,697. 1990 Census da
ta show that a New York City worker with a Bachelor's degree will, on average, earn an income that peaks at $46,055.
- Earnings of CUNY graduates were dramatically enhanced by the open admissions policy established in the 1970s. Professor of Sociology David E. Lavin of Lehman College and the CUNY Graduate School has reported that students previously ineligible for ad
mission to CUNY went on to earn, as graduates, $67 million more in one year in the 1980s than they would have without a college degree.
- At least half of CUNY's students could not have afforded to attend any other college, according to a recent survey. These students - nearly 275,000 from 1970 to 1997 - could not have attained the higher earnings that result from a college educ
ation.
- Each year, New York City and State derive $708 million more in taxes from CUNY's 1970-1997 graduates than if these taxpayers had not earned a college degree.
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