Originally Posted by Bostonian
According to Figure 1.1, the median earnings of people by highest degree is

$91,000 PhD
$70,000 MA
$56,500 BA
$35,400 high school diploma .

Reporting on earnings gaps that ignore differences in intelligence and other personal attributes is misleading.

Added: the average salary for someone with a professional degree is $102,200.

Great! That's solidly upper middle class! grin grin grin

But...let's talk about the cost of paying off your student loans. confused

Average debt among med school graduates is $167,000. Paying it off over 30 years means at 7.5% means you'll pay ~$420,000 total to go to med school. Then there are all those lost earnings. frown They sure do add up (not counting a BA, which you probably also owe money on, there are 4 years of med school, a year as a serf (internship) and then 3 to 5 years as an underpaid resident (starting salary in the 40s). Then you get to pay for your malpractice insurance! frown frown

If you bring the debt up to $200,000 to include BA debt, you'll end up paying $500,000 for that education that was your ticket to the upper middle class. frown frown frown

But at least doctors can get jobs. The same is not necessarily true for law school grads.

It's nice to start life as a debt serf.

Last edited by Val; 10/07/13 09:02 AM. Reason: Fix small error