More Americans are Now Earning Master’s and Doctoral Degrees

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more Americans are earning advanced degrees (master’s, professional, and doctoral degrees) as of late. In fact, in 2000 there were 10.4 million Americans who had a master’s degree. By 2018, that number had doubled to 21.0 million. The jump for doctoral degrees was even higher, from 2.0 million to 4.5 million.

I am a member of the technical advisory committees at Seattle colleges. In our meetings, the interest among the public in earning an advanced degree is often the topic of our discussions. I have talked to several university and college deans in the past few years and they have told me about the rise in interest in advanced college degrees and how they are changing their programs accordingly. The Census Bureau has now confirmed what seems to be the trend in recent years. Today, 13.1% Americans have an advanced degree.

In the past, to stand out among the applicants the students worked hard to earn a bachelor’s degree. But not any more. Today they are realizing they need a master’s degree to get a leg up on the competition. According to the Census Bureau, in 2017 a person with an advanced degree earned 3.7 times more on average than a high school dropout. This means that if a person who dropped out of high school earned $40,000 a year, a person with an advanced degree earned $148,000 a year.

Here are some other interesting statistics provided by the U.S. Census Bureau.

• 13.1% Americans have an advanced college degree.
• College education is higher among the Naturalized Citizens with 38.4% earning at least a bachelor’s degree or higher.
• Men tend to drop out of high school more than women.
• Recent immigrants are more likely to get college education than earlier immigrants and native born.
• Almost 40% of the children of immigrants have at least a bachelor’s degree.
• In less than 20 years (2000-2018) the percentage of people over 25 with a college degree (bachelor’s or higher) increased by 9%, from 25.6% to 35%.

If you are interested in an advanced college degree, there are many online universities that offer convenient and inexpensive path to higher education. One such university is Western Governor’s University (WGU). In 2016, I earned my master’s degree in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance from WGU. I wrote the following review and an FAQ post to answer the questions that many people have asked since my graduation.

• Master of Science in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance from Western Governors University
• FAQs About Master’s Degree in Cybersecurity from WGU

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