Chadron State President Tom Krepel and Erin McCawley, a CSC theatre student who was recently crowned the college s Homecoming queen, addressed a group of students at Chadron Middle School on Friday. Krepel and McCawley told the students that in addition to the many social benefits of attending post-secondary education, college graduates also tend to make more money than those with less schooling. Of course, money isn t the only reason to attend college. But the amount of additional money that one makes over the period of one lifetime is incredible, said Bob Reynolds, director of counseling, careers and tutoring at Chadron State. If you add that difference up over an entire career, it comes to well over a half a million dollars.
Officials stress that college is an investment worth making.
Officials compare those figures to the great amount of money college graduates will make throughout their careers. In addition, students are being given extra incentive to attend. The average amount of aid and grants available was almost twice as much per student as it was 10 years earlier. And, more and more jobs are opening for college graduates. The bureau expects that the number of college-level jobs between 1998 and 2008 will grow faster than the number of jobs for workers with less education.