Without a college degree, I may very well have been able to find <i>a</i> job that pays me what I make now that I'm a few years out of school.<p>But with a degree, I have a choice of a range of jobs in that pay scale.<p>My dad made a good living without a degree. He worked at a prison. But he didn't have the choice to make the same money at a job that didn't involve dealing with prison inmates every day.<p>Looking strictly at income doesn't tell the whole story by half. Many of the people I know who make good money without degrees do it in jobs that weren't exactly what they were telling their high school guidance counselor that they were interested in. They're not unhappy, they just had to explore deeper to find their options for making a good living.