Is IQ and social skills a better way to determine how much money someone will make than a college degree?

ive had this same exact conversation with family. i just received my A.S and plan on obtaining my AA. i may or may not do anything with it. i just love school and do it to feel good about myself, because looks and youth fade. but ill always have my brains and education. my fiance, who only graduated from high school makes about $50,000. he also has to work at 55 hours a week. he hates his job and ive tried to encourage him to go back to school, but hes just not the type. some people have good luck, timing, karma, etc. whatever you call it. for some people it works, for some it doesnt. mostly men can make real good money without an education because their jobs are physical. we women have to either do porn, or strip to make real good money. but i would personally never do that.

Persistance and drive have a powerful say in how much money a person will make. A college education helps train a person's sense of self discipline, critical thinking, focus and confidence, which support a sense of persistance and determination. If you're brilliant right out of the chute and know what you want to do and see that you are accomplishing what you want to be successful, college isn't as important than it is if you're kind of floundering and hoping a great idea will come tomorrow.

IQ does not have too much to do with being able to apply your "smarts" which is why I would say that social skills are probably the better way of determining who has potential to make more - in general. People who make a lot of money usually have pretty good skills with getting people to believe in them and make a good initial impression. Even if you have a high IQ or a good college student you still need to be able to interview well and know how to interact in a work/social environment. I know many people who are smart and good students who have limited income potential because they are not real good with people...and then Bill Gates is a college drop-outs...

The point of going to college is simply to open doors. That's really what it amounts to. Many jobs, careers, and especially the professions require bachelor's degrees or better. Innate intelligence and social skills are the better indicator of how well someone will succeed within the jobs they can get. But a college degree can dictate what career paths are open to you. On average, people with bachelor's degrees make roughly $10K more per year than someone without one. This is simply because of the types of jobs that require a bachelor's degree. Acquiring that degree doesn't mean that they are inherently smarter or more skilled at networking than someone without a bachelor's. It just opens the doors for them. Many of your college graduate friends who expect to make $50,000.00 right out of college have an unrealistic expectation. They most likely feel this way because everyone knows someone who got a job right out of college that DOES pay that much. But typically, those people are in very select majors and careers, like hard sciences like organic chemistry, or biochem.... Or traditionally lucrative careers like finance, banking, or economics. Since your friends see some college grads making that much, they likely assume that all college grads should make that much.