WHY GRADUATE FROM COLLEGE?

We are at-sea on the Norwegian Encore, and nothing much is happening on the ship worthy of mentioning. So I will shift to something I have on my list of what to post if there is nothing particularly newsworthy.

I've been a faculty member of the University of Hawaii for over 50 years. If my life on campus is a good indicator, I could say that getting the equivalent of a PhD and making a living as a professor or researcher at any college is as good as it can get. Well, becoming a billionaire should be better, but I'm not complaining.

Yet, we are all made differently with unique talents, or lack of them. Some will get better educated through family pressure and finances. Others will not have those opportunities. Then, there or those who will be driven by sheer will and resolution. Many have interests toward art, avocation, trade and lifestyles that don't require a college degree.

To begin, at least get a high school degree, for those that don't will only earn an average of 62% that of others. This means around $1000/month. Your unemployment rate will be 6.5%. Plus there is that matter of difficulty getting a job or any social respect. A high school graduate will at least get 77% of the average, and an unemployment rate of 4.6%.

Some college experience brings you up to 90%.
With an associate degree, the Department of Labor says this will be around $43,500/ year and unemployment rate of 3.4%. Two good reason for even a mid-level degree.
A bachelor's degree shoots you up to 131%, with a 2.5% unemployment rate.
A higher degree raises you to 138%.
A Master's Degree will provide you with $72,852/year and unemployment rate of 2.2%.
A doctorate will provide an annual income of $90,936/year and unemployment rate of 1.5%.
A professional degree, such as a Juris Doctor or Doctor of Medicine, raises you to $95,472.

According to Wikipedia, for the 2022/3 year, the largest American universities are.

#1 Arizona State University, 79,232. But as that graphic shows, most students doesn't mean best university.
#2 Texas A&M University, 74,869.
#3 Rutgers University, 68,942.
#4 University of Central Florida, 68,442.
#5 to #8: Florida, Ohio State, Illinois and Florida International University.
So Florida has three of the top 8 largest universities.

What about the World? This will surprise you.

#1 Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi, India, 7,140,000.
#2 National University, Bangladesh, Gazipur, 2,097,182.
#3 Andolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey, 1,974,343.
#4 California Community Colleges, 1,800,000.
At #16 and #17 are the University Systems of Ohio and California, with 478,000 and 457,000, respectively.

254 million are currently enrolled in a university or equivalent, 3% the world population.

If you have a college degree, you are among the 6.7% of people in this world. More than that, all studies show you have more than just more money: opportunity, respect and a higher path to enjoy life.

In the U.S., about 2% of the adult population holds a PhD or equivalent. More than half are women.

This percentage is lower in the world.
China has less than 0.5% PhDs.
Slovenia has 5% PhDs, Switzerland has 3% and Germany 1.4%.

The Honolulu Star Advertiser headlined that enrollment at UH's 10 campuses surpasses 50,000. Nothing particularly new. Last occurred in 2018. The head count this semester is 50,418. The main Manoa Campus has 20,208 students.

I remember way back in 1978 when the Manoa Campus had around 20,000 students.

We were beginning a cooperative solar program with Central Florida University, then known as the Florida Institute of Technology. Their total enrollment was 11,000.

By 1992, the name had changed to Central Florida University, and they had caught up with the University of Hawaii in enrollment, with both around 20,000.
Today at UCF? 61,456 undergraduates and over 10,000 graduate students, over 71,000 students.

Orlando metro in 1978 had a population 516,00.
Today, 2.7 million, or five times larger population.

Hawaii Manoa today? 20,208 students. Nothing has changed.
We had a population of 0.93 million in 1978. Today it is 1.4 million. Part of the reason why the University of Hawaii has not grown is that we have added community colleges throughout the state and other smaller colleges have since then opened.

Tomorrow we arrive in La Coruna, Spain.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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