• Only 27.5% of Americans over 25 have a BA degree or more.

• “Students from the highest income families are almost eight times as likely as those from the lowest income families to earn a bachelor’s degree by age 24.” *

• 70.1% of all 2009 high school graduates were enrolled in college that fall. (About 6 in 10 of those were enrolled in four-year colleges.) Only 59.3% of Hispanic high school graduates were enrolled in college; 68.7% of black high school graduates were enrolled in college that year.

• Overall, about 75% of students who enter as freshmen graduate high school. That graduation rate drops to 61.5% for black students and 63.5% for Hispanic students.

• People with a BA make 1.7 times as much money, on average, as people with a high school diploma or a GED.

• For people over 25, the poverty rate for high school dropouts is 25%; the poverty rate for people with a BA or more is 3.7%.

• 100% of the 108 resumes I have reviewed for the Awl’s managing editor job have a BA or more.