Same with my friends, (with the exception of my nursing major roommates, and they're all making a heck of a lot more than the rest of us, with just the bachelors.) And 1000x YES to the bolded part. It seems like it's more and more difficult to find a decent job with just a bachelors.
Also, high schools need to start having classes about applying for loans and FAFSA and all that jazz . That's a b*tch to learn/understand fully/complete in a matter of a couple months if you know nothing about it. Looking back 10 years, I wish I would've spent more time researching what the heck I was signing up for...