How educated are the ppl around you IRL?

[Krystal323]

There seems to be such a wide range of education levels here on MDC, and yet, IRL, I only know like two people who hold a Bachelor's degree (aside from my professors, ha!). Almost everyone we know dropped out of high school, even.

Just wondering what your personal IRL bubble looks like, and if it seems different than that on MDC, or the internet in general (poll coming)

[lach]

My DH is just about the only person I can think of off the top of my head who doesn't have a college degree. Most of the people I know have degrees beyond that.

[UberMama]

I'd say around 1/2 of our friends and family have degrees, and it's equal (between those that do and do not have degrees) when it comes to financial stability.

[Fujiko]

Just about all of my friends have a four-year degree (or higher) and only a small percentage of people in both dh's and my families have a four-year degree. So I voted other. I will say that financial stability can depend on what your degree is in, i.e. engineers generally make more than teachers (not that one is better than the other--definately not!). And educated people usually have better oppurtunities than non-educated people, although there again there are many non-educated people who are millionaires. So...YMMV.

[Krystal323]

my realtor is a highschool drop out and makes 250K a year. pretty much everyone else we know is struggling badly, even the few we know with degrees

i think the heavy military influence in this area means that there are no good jobs, so everyone's broke.

[bobandjess99]

Well..it depends on the bubble....socially i spend most of my time with the holistic moms group, and most of them have masters degrees......at work, everyone has at least a bachelors(social work), and some have masters, except for the secretary and clerk.....most of my clients are teens still in or who have dropped out of school....DH, who manages a restaurant, is surroundedmostly by people in high school, hs dropouts, and some going to college...

[PlayaMama]

most of the people we live around do not have degrees, most of our friends do have degrees, our families do not have degrees. and pretty much all of us are struggling financially.

except my grandparents that do not have degrees but are exceptionally good at planning and frugality.

[Poddi]

Just about everybody here has a bachelor's degree +. DH has a couple relatives in Alberta who only got 2 year diplomas, but they are also doing well financially. DH's company does not hire anybody who doesn't have a university degree. The only person I know who's struggling is my brother, because he's got depression and wouldn't get a full time job. He has a BSc as well.

I think every kid in the family's expected to go to college, even if all they want is to be a farmer or homemaker. *Judging from the poll result most people have a degree here.

[misswerewolf]

Well, I live in a university town. The [elite] university is heavily involved in research and also has its highly ranked MBA programs, law school, medical school, etc, so...most people around me are research doctors, medical doctors, lawyers, etc. The answer to your question is: they're highly educated, sometimes toooooo educated! In fact, I'm one of the few people in my social circle that does not presently have a doctorate degree.

[TwinsTwicePlusTwo]

I had to vote 'other' because it's a total mixture here. I have friends with doctorates and friends (including myself) who never finished high school. Most of us are doing surprisingly well, considering the economy.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

I dont know a single person who has graduated collage. Dh went for 2 years and had to drop out due to $ issues.

Everyone in my "circle" which is 100% family since I do not have IRL friends is either a HS grad only or dropped out.

We are all struggling some more than others.

[calpurnia]

i voted almost everyone has a 4 year degree, except in this country 3 year degrees are standard...

EVERYONE in my mum's family has a degree. i'm the 5th generation of women in my family to go to uni on that side. nobody apart from my dad has a degree on his side, but he's a doctor.

all my friends from school & university have degrees.

all of my mum friends have degrees.

most of the people i live around don't have degrees.

my family & my mum friends are financially okay. us & the people around us are struggling (but we are struggling because we are both in grad school at the moment...)

[AndrewsMother]

I would say that 95% of the people with whom we socialize hold at least a 4yr degree, most have additional degrees that are career specific. The other 5% do not and they are all struggling.

[chiromamma]

I live in a city that is considered one of the "most educated cities in the country"...meaning we have a large perecentage of folks with Bachelor's degrees or higher. Most of the folks I know have graduate degrees, even the guys that pull my espresso at the coffee bar!

[filiadeluna]

Almost everyone I know has a 4-year degree or higher. Everyone in my family has at least a bachelor's degree - and I do mean everyone, except me. I've only finished 2 years of college so far, and I'm not in school this semester or last due to being pregnant & now having a newborn. My husband has BA, though I make more money than he does. My mom has a Masters & two BAs, my aunt has a Masters in Nursing, one uncle is an M.D. (Neurologist), another uncle has a BA. Even my grandpa had a BS in Electrical Engineering. Everyone in DH's family also has a BA or higher (and most have Masters). I have a lot to live up to!

As for my friends, most have BAs, and most of the rest have at least *some* college under their belts. I live in a university town, though, so it's rare for people to not at least go to college for a little while here. I don't know anyone personally that did *not* finish high school. The bad my friends with degrees aren't making much more (if even as much) as some of my friends who haven't finished school. Perhaps that's because most of my friends have Liberal Arts degrees, and we all know how easy it is to get jobs in those fields.

[mightymoo]

I am the least educated of my husband's family with only a 4 year degree, my husband, his brother, my sil, and his mother all have masters, his father has a phd.

My family all has 4 year degrees, except my father and my mother has her masters.

I would say in general, I am very surprised when I find out someone I know doesn't have a 4 year degree, just because its rare - though I do know some folks, generally I find out because they are going back to school to get one. Also, its even more rare to find out someone we know never attempted to get one, generally they don't have them because they left early and went to work.

I also find the poll interesting, because if I had made it, I would have put options for folks having masters and phds, since I do know a fair number of people with masters, I would have selected something like 'Many of the people have their masters degree' or something like that.

[That Is Nice]

Most people I work with, or know through work, hold at least a master's degree. Many are PhDs or have law degrees.

Of my friends, nearly all have master's degrees or law degrees.

Of my family? I am the first, and one of the few, to go to college and graduate. There is a serious lack of formal or informal education in my family. And it shows.

Of DH's family, they are educated, but the older generation is not college educated. However, they had careers and are smart. The younger generation have all gone to college. And it shows.

[major_mama11]

Around here (rural Midwest) college degrees probably aren't as common as elsewhere. We mostly interact with our families, so that's what I'm going by for my answer.

DH is a HS graduate, and I have a bachelor's degree in nursing. We do fine financially, and could do really well if I went back to work FT instead of PT. If my husband came from a family that valued education at all rather than mocking it , I have no doubt he would have been an engineer.

Most in my immediate family have at least some college. My mom has a 4-yr, my sister and BIL both have their Masters and are both PhD program dropouts . My dad has some college. He has a professional job in computer security; he was fortunate enough to get into the field 25 years ago, before you needed letters behind your name to touch a computer .

Most of my mom's siblings have 4-yr degrees, but they are all starving artists with BFA's, so they do struggle a bit financially.

My MIL only went to 6th grade, but she and my FIL (hs graduate) both pull in a decent income for our area.

[Smithie]

Fourth-generation college educated female here!

The only person in our family who does NOT have at least a four-year degree is MIL, and that is by choice (her dad was willing to pay for college, but she met FIL and got married right out of high school). My brother actually spent a year in college screwing around, dropped out and joined the Army, but he is only 22 and plans to go to college on the GI Bill so I am counting him as a work in progress.

We are suffering less than most families, I think - my mom is a nurse, my dad sells Medicare supplemental insurance and business has not dropped off as he usually can increase the monthly discretionary income of the retired person since the new classes of products are much better value, MIL and FIL are retied and were very conservatively invested so they only lost a couple of bonds, brother and BIL both work for the government, me and SIL were already SAHMs. The one who must scramble the most is my DH, who is doing a startup software business. But he is doing OK - the contracts keep coming in, just with more nickel-and-diming.

In my larger social circle, we live in a low-education part of the country but we're Jewish, and going to college is like a holy obligation to the Jewish people, so everybody there has a 4-year or more. In my AP moms group, most of the women have 4-year degrees although some are struggling very much financially right now as the economy has seriously impacted the DHs' income and they are trying very hard to SAH with infants.

[EFmom]

I know very few people who don't have a 4 year degree or higher. Everyone in my family, except for my deceased mother, has completed college, most have advanced degrees. All of my high school friends went on to college.

I'm an academic librarian, and all my colleagues (and most of my friends come from this pool) have at least a masters degree, and many have Ph.D.s.