Comparing the Careers of College Graduates and Non-College Graduates Is Not a Good Way To Decide To/Not To Go To College
Those $$$ don’t all come from getting a degree, some come from being eligable to get one.
When making the decision about whether or not to attend college, many people look at the average outcomes of college graduates versus non-college graduates.
It’s common to hear that college graduates earn more money, have better job prospects, and enjoy more career stability. While these statistics are compelling, they don’t tell the whole story.
The reality is that simply comparing the outcomes of these two groups can be misleading because it fails to account for the filtering effect that universities have in selecting individuals who are already likely to be successful.
The Filtering Effect of College Admissions
To understand this concept, let’s consider a thought experiment. Imagine we separate a population into two random groups. On average, we would expect each group to have similar outcomes in terms of intelligence, motivation, socioeconomic status, and other factors that contribute to success.
