Biology, and advanced math are both killers for me, the rest is easy.

I have a BS in IT and I didn't have to take biology as my science, and the math only went up to statistics, discrete structures, and pre-calc.

Too bad they include lawyers and doctors in those averages, where there is no degree less option for their career paths.

They also include people who have been in prison since high school, so there are extremes on both sides of the data. Also, there are plenty of lawyers who are way under-employed as paralegals.

There are no degree-less options for a lot of fields. Try being an engineer or a nurse without a degree.

44k is a LOT of money, that's a down payment on a house where I live.

Yeah but as I said, it is the kind of investment that will more than pay for itself over your career. Even if it only amounts to a salary of $5k more than you normally would have, it's paid off in 8 years."

I do want to get a degree, but its so stupid expensive and takes a lot of time away from my life. =(

I mean, it depends how you view life. A lot of times people just sit around playing video games or watching TV... is replacing that time with school really a bad thing?

For me, while I hated some of my classes, university was some of the best times in my life. It was an intense personal challenge and I had many nights alone at the library studying or working on programs. And you have the feeling of accomplishment when you pass a particularly hard exam or get a program working you never thought you would. You can either view it like some prison sentence or realize that it is actually a great privilege. Many people have lived and died without the ability to go to school if they wanted to.