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Some college, no degree

Typical entry-level education · BLS

Some college, no degree is one of the eight typical entry-level education levels BLS assigns to occupations — the credential most workers have when they enter the job. This level covers 7 occupations employing about 3,898,170 workers, with a median wage of $45,760. It describes the typical path, not a requirement — many people enter by other routes.

What occupations at this level pay

Median annual wage across occupations at this entry-level education, from BLS OEWS (national, cross-industry, May 2024). The middle range shows the 25th–75th percentile of occupation medians — it describes the level, not a guarantee for any one person or job.

Median occupation wage $45,760
Middle range (p25–p75) $41,233 – $48,623
Occupations with wage data 6 of 7

AI exposure at this education level

Two published studies estimate how exposed each occupation is to today's AI. The OpenAI "GPTs are GPTs" study rates the share of an occupation's tasks a large language model (with tools) could speed up by half or more; averaged across occupations that typically need this credential it is 39% — 56th percentile of the eight education levels. The independent Felten/Raj/Seamans AI Occupational Exposure index averages 0.42 here.

Computed across the 6 of 7 occupations at this level that carry a published exposure score.

Across the eight levels, AI exposure rises with education — degree-requiring knowledge work is most exposed, manual and credential-light work least. Exposure measures where AI could assist tasks, not a prediction that these jobs will be automated; high exposure most often means augmentation.

Highest-paying occupations at this level

Occupations whose typical entry-level education is some college, no degree, with the highest median wage. Wage describes the occupation, not an individual.

Occupation Median pay
Computer User Support Specialists $60,340
Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks $49,210
Computer, Automated Teller, and Office Machine Repairers $46,860
Order Clerks $44,660
Tutors $40,090
Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary $35,240
Actors —

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 3, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Some college, no degree." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/education/some-college-no-degree

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Some college, no degree. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/education/some-college-no-degree

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-some-college-no-degree,
  title  = {Some college, no degree},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/education/some-college-no-degree}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.