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More than half of Bozeman residents have college degrees

Posted at 4:59 PM, Mar 06, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-06 19:16:16-05

 — Story by Emma Hamilton – MTN News

BOZEMAN – According to The United States Census, 57 percent of adults in Bozeman have bachelor’s degrees, and fewer than two percent are without a high school degree.

“Your fly fishing guide may have a philosophy degree or your coffee server may be an English major,” City of Bozeman Director of Economic Development Brit Fontenot said.

The harsh reality of a college degree is there’s no guarantee that there will be the opportunity to use it or that you’ll want to use it.

Terry Ketterer went to Montana State University and said he originally wanted to be an elementary school teacher.

He owns Cupcake Mountain with his wife, who went to cosmetology school.

“After I got out of college and we figured out there wasn’t a whole lot going on, we just decided to take a gamble and do something we could do together,” Ketterer said.

With a liberal arts degree and a beauty school education, the husband and wife duo are able to run this business with no business degrees, something that some people may find impossible.

Having well-educated community members is great for Bozeman, but as with everything there are pros and cons.

“Wonderful library, we have a very active and vibrant university. I think that speaks volumes about how community members value education. However, having high education attainment also means this can be difficult for some businesses to hire for specific positions where a college degree might not be necessary,” Fontenot said.

The United States’s average of people with bachelor degrees is 32 percent while the state of Montana is 30 percent.