With the national debate on the government absorbing the U.S. $1.73 trillion in student loan debt heating up again, here’s a question worth asking:

Is college all it is cracked up to be?

After all, Microsoft, Apple and Meta founders Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college and became not just some of the world’s wealthiest, but also the world’s most influential, people.

A closer look into the true value of college finds the earnings of those who graduate from college versus schools of even higher education are not that disparate. It also reveals that few people work in a field related to their college degree.

The median annual salary for those who have earned a master’s degree is $77,844, 20% higher than the median earnings of $64,896 for those with a bachelor’s degree, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

However, the median earnings for those with just a high school diploma is $38,792.

Just over half, 54%, of college graduates over the age of 25 do not work in the field they studied in college, and 16% of college graduates under the age of 54 are currently unemployed, according to a new survey released this month from education magazine Intelligent.com.

Paycheck to Paycheck

People wondering how vital college is to their career may also be surprised by the survey’s findings that even those with college degrees do not necessarily command high salaries. An even quarter, 25%, of graduates responding to the survey earned less than $30,000 a year, and in an even starker example, about 14% earned less than $15,000 per year, a number that would potentially place them below the U.S. poverty line of $12,880 for a household with a single individual.

Nearly a majority, 48%, of college graduates aged 25 and up also live paycheck to paycheck, the survey found. Close to one-in-three graduates said they consistently live paycheck-to-paycheck, and another third reported feeling unsure they will have enough money to cover their monthly bills, including their rent.

Of course, income varies widely by the industry in which college graduates work. More than 37% of business, engineering and computer science majors easily earn more than $90,000 in annual income. Social science and education majors, however, earn an average of $42,000 a year according to Zippia.

Career Prospect Worries

Sixty-nine percent of respondents to the Intelligent.com survey are worried about having to start paying back their student loans (put on hiatus during the COVID pandemic), and 28% say student loans impact their finances in a major way.

The concern may be warranted, as student debt rose to a record $1.73 trillion last year and affects more than 46 million Americans.

Borrowers between the ages of 25 and 34 owe an average of $33,570. Student debt is not only limited to Millennials, as even for borrowers aged 62 and older, student debt has increased 25% since 2017, and they carry an average debt load of $40,750, according to data from The Federal Reserve.

Roughly a third of respondents reported their financial situations are worse now than before COVID. President Biden is facing increasing pressure from progressives to take decisive action on student debt cancellation, but the Biden Administration has thus far remained hesitant to cancel student debt outright.