Facts About U.S. Education

You will be surprised!

Competition Your Child Faces

Number of high school students: 17 million (2018)
Number of students graduating from high school each year: 3.7 million, with 3.3 million from public high schools and 0.4 million from private high schools (2018)
Number of public high schools in United States: 26,407 (2001)
Number of private high schools in United States: 10,693 (2001)
51 million students are attending public k-12 schools and 6 million students are attending private k-12 schools (2017)
There are 98,300 public schools, 6,900 charter schools and 34,600 private schools in k-12 range (2015)
Between 1985 and 2008, public school enrollment rose 26%, from 39.4 million to 49.8 million
There are over 4,000 accredited colleges and universities in the US, and they grant over two million degrees a year
20 million students attend American colleges and universities (2017)
Between 1994 and 2004, the number of full time college students increased by 30%
25 to 29 year-olds who have completed bachelors degree is increasing dramatically, in 1970 it is 16% and in 2014 it is 34%
Highest level of education attained by persons 25 years old and over: Associates – 8.7%, Bachelors – 18.3%, Masters – 8.0%, Doctors – 1.3% (2006)
Age 25 and over people who have at least a bachelors degree is 32% and at least a doctorate is 1.8% (2016)
Post-secondary institutions awarded 0.96 million certificates below the associate’s degree level, 1.0 million associate’s degrees, 1.9 million bachelor’s degrees, 0.76 million master’s degrees and 0.18 million doctor’s degrees (2014-15)
Associates degrees awarded per capita*: 2.8 (2010)
Bachelors degrees awarded per capita: 5.4 (2010)
Masters degrees awarded per capita: 2.2 (2010)
PhD degrees awarded per capita: 0.2 (2010)

Preparedness of Students

Only 69% of US students graduated from high school with a regular diploma in four years (2007)
Only 30% of US high school graduates who took ACT test are ready for college-level science
Only 45% of US high school graduates who took ACT test are ready for college-level math
Only 46% of US high school graduates who took SAT test are ready for college
Average SAT score of students is 1060 out of 1600
Average ACT score of students is 21 out of 36

Educational Costs to Parents

The annual (meaning 9 month only) total cost to attend top private high schools is around 60,000$ \$ $: Ethel Walker – 65,000$ \$ $, Choate – 56,000$ \$ $, Phillips Andover – 55,000$ \$ $ (2017)
The average annual expenditure per student in k-12 public school is 13,000$ \$ $ (2018)
The annual total cost to attend top undergraduate universities is more than 70,000$ \$ $: MIT – 80,000$ \$ $, Caltech – 70,000$ \$ $, Columbia – 68,405$ \$ $, Brown – 64,566$ \$ $ and Yale – 64,650$ \$ $ (2017)
The average annual price for undergraduate tuition, fees, room, and board was 17,237$ \$ $ at public institutions, 44,551$ \$ $ at private nonprofit institutions and 25,431$ \$ $ at private for-profit institutions (2016)
Tuition rates are increasing at the rate of 9% per year (2015-16)
MBA programs annual costs are touching 105,000$ \$ $ at NYU and 125,000$ \$ $ at Stanford

Job Competition

The unemployment rate for high school graduates not enrolled in college was 26.7%, compared with 14.9% for graduates enrolled in either two or four year colleges (2008)
Average salaries of people with degrees: bachelors – 67k$ \$ $, masters – 78k$ \$ $, professional – 104k$ \$ $, doctorate – 94k$ \$ $ (2003)
Medical Doctors per capita*: 2.3
Lawyers per capita: 3.4. The most number of lawyers are in Washington DC. 56% of US senators are lawyers!
Engineers per capita: 5 (2016)
Scientists and Researchers per capita: 9.1 (2015)
Certified Public Accountants per capita: 2.1
Startups per capita: 1.3

* (Note: Per capita here means per 1000 of US population, US population is approximately 320 million)