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A new analysis from the chancellor's office of California Community Colleges shows students who earn an associate degree more than double their annual pre-degree earnings after two years in the work force and nearly triple those earnings after five years.
The system's Salary Surfer program aggregates the median earnings of students who complete a certificate or degree in a specific discipline and then enter the work force.
The data shows that about 48 percent of students who graduated with an associate degree earned at least $56,000 a year five years after achieving the degree, while 29 percent earned $79,000 a year five years after graduation. For students who earned a certificate, 44 percent made $56,000 or more a year five years after graduating, while 24 percent earned at least $79,000 a year five years after graduation.
