Clearing Up Common Misconceptions About Higher Education
Myth #1: College graduates have such a difficult time finding jobs, college is not worth the investment.
Data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics data show an unemployment rate of more than 9 percent for high school graduates, but only a 5% unemployment rate for college graduates as of 2012. The data also show a lower unemployment rate for workers for each level of education attained.
Additionally these data show that median weekly earnings increase for workers for each level of education attained.
Myth #2: Dropping Out is Temporary
Sixty-two percent of students who drop out of college do not return according to With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them, A Public Agenda Report for The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Myth #3: Average time to earn a bachelor’s degree is four years
U.S. Department of Education data for 2013 show that 59% of full-time undergraduate students at 4-year degree granting institutions who started in 2005 took 150% of the time to graduate, that is, they took six years to complete their degrees.
U.S. Department of Education data for 2013 show that 31% of full-time undergraduate students at 2-year degree granting institutions who started in 2008 took 150% of the time to graduate, that is, they took three years to complete their degrees or certificates.
Myth #4: Dropping out of college is the best catalyst to becoming a successful entrepreneur
A Kauffman survey found that 82 percent of U.S.-born technology or engineering company founders had earned a bachelor’s degree.
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Works Cited
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them, A Public Agenda Report. in Why Do Students Drop Out or Opt Out.” Community College Completion Corps. Phi Theta Kappa. 2014. http://www.cccompletioncorps.org/ccccorps/ptk/why-students-drop-out
Earnings and Unemployment Projections by educational attainment. (2012) Employment Projections. United States Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm
Institute of Education Sciences. Fast Facts. Graduation Rates. The National Center for Education Statistics http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=40
Wadhwa, V. and Freeman, R. B. and Rissing, B. A., Education and Tech Entrepreneurship (May 1, 2008). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1127248 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1127248
The Adjunct 
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