Q: After a long summer holiday, I'm about to return to school, I'm actually kind-of dreading it, but I remember reading there were specific economic and employment advantages to having a college degree. What are those advantages? Are they actually significant?

A: Many people commonly stress over the decision to go to college or not. The short term benefits of making money right after graduating high school, versus paying to go to school for four years can seem like a toss-up: “Does going to college really help you that much?” and “Won’t I make more money by working more, sooner?”

Economically speaking, going to college is the right decision. The difference between the average income of college graduates and high school graduates is surprising. In 2010, the Bureau of Labor statistics reported that a college graduate averaged $53,976 a year ($1,038 a week), while high school graduates earned a slim $32,552 a year ($626 a week).

This means that after working eight years after college, having a bachelor’s degree will on average earn you a total income of $41,184, more than the person who opts out of higher education.

The difference in incomes is also not the only factor that makes going to college the better economic decision.  The unemployment rate as reported by the Office on Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) on high school graduates has been 10.1% for non-disabled persons and 14.7% for the disabled workforce thus far in 2011. For those disabled persons who have graduated from college, the unemployment so far in 2011 has been 8.1%. From this data, it can be seen that not having graduated from high school can be more of a substantial impairment to successfully staying employed than an actual disability.

With nearly double the income and half the unemployment rate of high school graduates, going to college is a great life decision. Even if you aren’t looking for a job that requires a college degree, the degree will make you more competitive in all aspects of the job market, from job security to income levels, graduating from college will give you a significant advantage when you enter the workforce.