US college degrees, and other questions.

I have no college degree and seem to be doing pretty well. It hasn't been a problem yet. I suppose if I tried for an upper management position it may be an issue, but as of now it has not been and I work for a top bank as a web designer. I think being a web designer without a degree is a little different than being a manager of the private banking division without one. I myself make it an issue though, its not that I wanted to drop out of school I had to for financial reasons. I want to go back to this day, but can't make the time.

The Sat's were somewhat difficult, I scored a 1150, top score is 2000. You do have to study for them and I recommend a course for it as well.

I think students drop out of further education simply to pursue other intrests (music, acting, etc...). Some for financial reasons, and some for the fact that they cannot handle the stress involved.

Did they change how they're scored? Top score used to be 1600.

The value of a degree is judged by several factors: GPA; the school's reputation (for your area of expertise); and, depending on your field, the level degree you have. The SAT's are a standardized test, so some people are going to find them tough and others are going to find them relatively simple. (My mind is geared towards those types of tests, so I thought they were pretty easy.) Chris touched on a major reason that people drop out of school; finances. It's often very difficult to find a way to pay the prohibitive costs of post-secondary education, particularly on the bachelor's level. Another problem people face is burn-out; many doctorate candidates tire of the school environment and the student lifestyle and discover that their passion for their subject isn't enough to overcome this, so they bow out of their program with a master's degree. Finally, there's the responsibility issue; many of the people I went to school with had led very disciplined lives, so when they got to college it was in many ways their first taste of freedom and they let themselves get a little too carried away. There was one famous year where 80% of my friends were asked to take time off by the university because they were partying too hard. Some kids recover from this and go on to do well; others don't.

A lot of employers just care that you have the degree. Some jobs (lawyer, investment banker, doctor) really care where it's from, but for most places work experience and interview skills, etc, are a lot more important.

"How tough are the Scholastic Achievement Tests (SATs)?"

Depends a lot on how well you test. A lot of that is influenced by race, class, gender, etc. The SAT is anything but fair. I didn't find the SATs too difficult, but I was at the most advantaged end of the spectrum. Worth noting that I would most likely not have gotten into the university I did were it not for the ridiculous weight placed on standardized tests.

Why do so many students drop out of further education?

Um, a lot of reasons I imagine. I stopped after getting my BA cause I was sick of school and I liked working a lot more. I'm going back now (six years later) cause I have free time in the evenings and thought I might enjoy school more now (I was right).

An additional question, how do students without wealthy parents fund their way through college, and does this vary from state to state?

One thing about the U.S. that I assume differs substantially from Europe is the state college system: each state supports a system of public universities. (The quality of these varies from state to state; your average state school is seen as just sort of decent and fine enough, but your better ones can in some senses creep up to the lower border of Ivy League quality.) The trick here is that as they're publically financed, residents of a particular state can attend their state colleges at lower tuition rates than one would pay at a comparable private institution. (Off the top of my head, let's say you'd pay $8,000 a year, whereas people from out of state would pay $25,000.) Between this and the fact that government financial aid is need-based -- i.e., you're submitting a full report of family income and for every school you've been accepted to you're getting back an aid offer ostensibly based on your actual ability to afford the school -- well, getting a decent college degree doesn't take extreme wealth. It's more likely to present the difficulties of your having to settle for a school that's not very highly regarded, and having to work a ton and borrow extensively to get through the whole thing.

The other magic bullet is that if you're willing to go down the path into the armed forces, you can get your college education partially or even completely paid for, down to stipends to buy books each year. You may or may not wind up being obligated to actually serve in the armed forces when you're done. It seems to me that a fairly significant number of people who otherwise wouldn't be able to finance a college education run with this option.