Education divides us, and more than some of my students and colleagues realize.<\/p>\n
When I ask classes to estimate the percentage of citizens in the United States<\/a> with bachelor\u2019s degrees<\/a>, they consistently guess more than two-thirds. My colleagues estimate half, usually. Neither is correct.<\/p>\n Only about a third of adults in the United States, 33.4 percent, have earned a bachelor\u2019s degree. Though this is an incredible increase from 4.6 percent before World War II<\/a>, it remains true that a minority of adults have four-year college<\/a> degrees. Less than 10 percent of adults have earned graduate degrees<\/strong>. This means that professors are the slimmest of slices\u2026 the \u201cone percent\u201d of educational attainment.<\/p>\n More Americans Have College Degrees<\/a><\/p>\n April 2017<\/p>\n Just over a third of American adults have a four-year college degree<\/a>, the highest level ever measured by the U.S. Census Bureau<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a report released Monday, the Census Bureau said 33.4 percent of Americans 25 or older said they had completed a bachelor\u2019s degree or higher.<\/strong> That\u2019s a sharp rise from the 28 percent with a college degree a decade ago.<\/p>\n When the Census Bureau first asked respondents about their education levels, in 1940, just 4.6 percent said they had a four-year degree.<\/p>\n About a quarter of American adults, 26 percent, have a high school diploma. Another 21 percent have attained a bachelor\u2019s degree, while 9.3 percent of adults over 25 have a master\u2019s degree. Almost 2 percent of Americans have a doctoral degree<\/a>, and 1.5 percent have earned a professional degree that requires study beyond a four-year bachelor\u2019s course.<\/p>\n Younger Americans are more likely to have attained a four-year degree than older groups. Among Americans between the ages of 25 to 34, 37 percent have at least a bachelor\u2019s degree.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There is a further division, within academia, between the tenure-track and contingent (part-time and annual contract) faculty. This makes full-time faculty professors yet more rarefied, sitting atop the ivory towers.<\/p>\n I am not currently a tenure-track professor, but I do posses two master\u2019s degrees<\/a> (including a terminal MFA) and a doctorate. I know others with more than three graduate degrees, including a few MBAs<\/a> with Ph.D.s in various disciplines. One colleague has two doctorates, and the number of medical doctors with doctorates impresses me.<\/p>\n Educational attainment results in a cultural divide, one that\u2019s more pronounced within the humanities and social sciences.<\/p>\n