Going For The Gold in Education

Now that the summer Olympics have ended, we can all catch up on our sleep and take time to reflect on the examples of the incredible commitment of time, effort, and money athletes and their families have made in their quest to make the U.S. Olympic team and compete for the gold in Beijing.

So what does this have to do with education? For many servicemembers and veterans getting a degree may seem just as daunting as competing in the Olympics. After all a college education takes an incredible amount of time, effort, money, and personal commitment. Unlike preparing for the Olympics a college degree is relatively risk free, while the rewards can be nearly as great.

Just like winning the Olympics, earning your college degree is worth gold. In fact people with bachelor's degrees earn a median salary of $49,000 a year. The median salary for those with some college, but no degree is $35,700, while those with a high school diploma average $30,800. That means that the median value of a Bachelor's degree is over $18,000 a year - about a million dollars over a life time.