I won't tell Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates you said that.

You guys pals? Not gonna bother them with that tidbit when ya'll hit the links this weekend?

"$100-200K would be better spent buying and paying off a house versus a Russian lit degree. $75K a year and a paid off house sounds better to me than $75K and a rent receipt."

How do you get a $75k job a year these days with a 4 year degree in any major?

How are you going to get a $100-200k mortgage when your annual income is $35-40k after taxes?

Reading books at the library is actually a poor substitute for the rigors of a college education, regardless of the income it may or may not earn you. That's what Balkins does and we all know how that turned out. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

The son of a good friend is making $70,000 plus very good benefits two years out with a BS degree in civil engineering. Does not have his PE liscense as yet.

When I left my last architecture job back in Denver circa mid 2013, I was trying to sublet my apartment (450sqft) via craigslist. I had a guy that was 3 years out of college that just past his PE test to be a licensed civil engineer. He had just accepted a job at a civil firm that was right down the street (sloan lake area). I asked if he didnt mind telling me what his starting salary was... $30 an hour!

It was the icing on the cake for me to get the fux out... he appreciated me showing him my place, since it was literally a hundred yards from my front door to his work. I could tell that once he left he was never going to sublet. The apt was so freaking small that he left shaking his head.

It was $750 a month, I was making $17 an hour at the archi design build I had just left to pursue art. This was 8 years in the industry.

An architect taking the conventional licensure route is unlikely to be pulling down $75K before 40 years old.  There are blue collar and grey collar trades not requiring college that an eighteen year old could go into right out of high school and be making that much after ten years or so.  The money and lost earning years spent on a liberal arts degree could therefore be salted away and used to pay off a house by age 40, when the archie would maybe be making his last student loan payment.

One guy has $75K and a mortgage to service while the other has $75K and no house payments.  All else being equal, I'll take option #2.

Since we're still sharing anecdotes, most blue and grey collar guys I know spend their money on quads, sleds, trucks and guns, and are no closer to paying off their house than the average bloke, if they have a house at all.  

Same whiny bullshit we always have to listen to. Yes, engineers make more than architects. Who cares? 

Geezer must think that there are an awful lot of underwater welding jobs out there- the truth is that college is still the best way to earn a good salary. I understand that a lot of people are in trouble because of their loans, and that's really unfortunate. The reason that they take the gamble, though, is that prospects for people without degrees is bad:

Nice data anonitect,

With advanced degrees there is less unemployment and higher wages but also greater personal debt to obtain advanced degrees.

How does one get ahead?

Marry rich. I'm aiming for a mid-40s rich divorcee.

The doctorate degree salaries listed above also presumably include people teaching at Cal Tech and MIT with doctorates in engineering. That is not remotely related to the salary of someone with a doctorate in sociology teaching part-time with no benefits at some small liberal arts school no one ever heard of. In many instances people invest a lot of time and money in undergraduate and graduate programs for which there is little or no payoff. People throwing a ton of money at undergraduate and graduate architecture programs at private schools would seem to be in that group.

Consider the Master of Architecture at the Illinois School of Architecture (Urbana-Champaign).  You could apply for Fall '17.

http://arch.illinois.edu

Take courses in art, etc. to develop materials for your portfolio.

If questions, contact me.

@DocArchitecture