Community College. Learn something valuable! You can read Shakespeare on your own time and not have to go into debt to do it.

"We'd all like our sons and daughters, maybe, to be doctors and lawyers and make the big money..." A JD is no guarantee of the "big money." Not anymore, if it ever was. An MD, on the other hand, is probably the only degree that virtually guarantees you a six-figure job (after some additional training). Will it last? We shall see. "Still, a history major is probably not going to become a doctor." Many medical schools encourage liberal-arts applicants. My mother and my sister are doctors. My mother majored in English lit. My sister double majored in history and visual arts. I believe they are both better physicians for it.

I was already working two jobs while in college and it took me 5 yrs to get my degree.

I really wanted a fine arts degree but my grandmother talked me out of it. I think if I hadn't made the hard choice of steering toward a career based degree (and started in community college) in a I'd probably still be waitressing and buried under debt.

It was the time I spent in computing that helped me gain a network (and secondary digital art skills) to sell what used to be just a hobby.

People entering college need to take a hard look at themselves and make realistic decision about what they want to do in life. A four year college is a very expensive way to "find yourself".

Great post Kata.

Think about what it would be like if no one majored in liberal arts and everyone majored in STEM (science, technology, engineering, medicine) as we always hear they should. Those fields would experience a glut, meaning they'd no longer be a sure bet (as if they are a sure bet now). Meanwhile, what would the state of our culture be? Also, it should be noted that not everyone is cut out for STEM. Do you really want people in those disciplines that have no business being there? What isn't being said, I think, is that a lot of people simply don't belong in college in the first place. The UW is not and should not be a vocational school. We should be supporting vocational education, but not at the expense of academics.

Certainly education is of value regardless of its effect on employability. State subsidized higher education, on the other hand should be oriented specifically toward employment. Why? Because the low wage worker, who will never be able to obtain a higher education, is paying for it. In a just society there would be NO state subsidy for higher education. It is morally wrong to force poor working people to pay part of the cost for middle and upper middle class student's education. It is UNJUST and can not be rationalized no matter the semantic hoops through which one may leap.

Yes let's fire the useless Vick Snyder and keep him out of a job for about five years. Give him some huge chunks of debt too. After all, he really does not demonstrate that he has the best interests of the kids at heart. Just how to maintain his very, very, very phony baloney job.

40 years ago, I graduated from the UW (coincidence) with a BA in political science. It was interesting, but for 40 years I have been self employed in real estate. .... In 40 years, about the only thing that degree (major) has helped me with is writing comments to MyNorthwest.com.

An education is not summed up by some piece of parchment you get after 4 or 5 years. It is the sum of what you did prior to that event. For some majors, at some schools, all the diploma represents it that you indeed were enrolled there and showed up to enough classes that the professor recognized you sufficiently to give you a grade. Baby boomers went to college with a purpose, and no matter what the major they pursued it trying to get full value for their (or the GI Bill's) money. But the post baby boomers, who had a draft into an unpopular (and perhaps illegal) war to worry about, did not have education as a goal. And things have gone downhill ever since. When I graduated with an engineering degree I had trouble getting a job, along with most of my classmates. This was post Vietnam and the economy had taken a deep nosedive. I did get a job during the summer, but it was a couple months later than I would have anticipated. One of my high school classmates, who was a history major, went into business and may not make the big bucks but is seen regularly on public television. In short, it is not what you study but how you study and what you do with it, coupled with just a little bit of luck in timing and circumstances.

The other day about a guy who just graduated with a PhD in History, and is now on food stamps. Really, did he go into this thinking that just he gets to use the title "Doctor" that he somehow gets an automatic entitlement to a six-figure income. I think the colleges, certainly the public colleges (as someone pointed out) have an obligation to at least have a plan to turn out productive citizens for our society.

Today, we tell our high school kids that college is the path to success. But then we baby them and tell them to study what interests them. There is no plan to get to "success," or even a definition of "success" mean. Couple that with this outdated ideology that Universities are meant for rarefied, ivory-tower thinking and research meant to forward the collective knowledge of mankind -- fostered by Professors who think that their research on the culture of some dead civilization is critical to the future of our race.

Earlier last year, as I prepared to send my oldest daughter to college, I read a story about some woman in San Francisco who was the first person to go to college in her family. The story was about student loans, and she was in debt up to her eyeballs, and the only job she could find was a photographer's assistant. Her major? Women's Studies. Someone really sold her a bill of goods that somehow Bachelors Degree equated to a middle-class life. WRONG. There is a reason why we call the years after college the REAL life.

It's not so much that I feel that liberal arts degrees aren't valuable - because I truly do believe that the college experience is valuable for young people... but the hard cold reality is that there are some degrees that are MUCH more applicable than others - and some degrees make it very difficult to justify the degree for the type of job that you may end up with.

I struggle with taking a strong stance on the issue - because I truly do believe that most people that pursue a higher degree of education largely end up more well-rounded (I realize there are exceptions to this).

I just wish that there were ways to be more honest with kids entering college. I wish someone had told me - "sure, pursue a degree in Sociology if it's something you love. But realize that unless you use it specialize in a specific area or unless you further your education - you'll end up in relatively low-paying jobs in your career."

I love doing what I do - but I do sometimes regret that the career field that I'm in is payed much less than other career fields.

I'm not convinced I would have chosen something different (i.e. an MBA instead of pursuing an MSW), but at least I would have had more of an honest discussion about it before I started the journey.

I don't really have regrets. I do regret that my chosen career field isn't valued more than it is. But that's just the way our society is I guess.

I agree with those who see the higher education experience as valuable to a well-rounded life. As I say, "when I graduated from high school, I thought I knew all there was to know; when I graduated from college, I realized I didn't know a darned thing." That revelation has led to a rewarding lifetime of the pursuit of knowledge. But the real issue is a generational one. As a member of "The Greatest Generation", I knew that I would have to go out and find my own livelihood and college gave the confidence to do that. As I watch my grandsons graduate from college today, I am struck by the fact that they have no idea of how to go about finding a job. They grew up in an environment that has led them to believe that the job (and all good things) will come to them. College counseling is needed, not to direct the student to WHICH job. Rather a requirement of graduation should be successful completion of a full credit course on what the real world is all about and what is needed to make oneself ready for that.

I really am. I cannot believe there aren't tons of jobs out there for soci, psych, poly sci, etc. ( I would include ethnic studies, but don't want to be labled a racist). Being a math major has never left me a day where I did not work full time.

the only problem is, all of us that studied something useful, are now paying for all the soci, pshy, poly sci, people that have nothing useful to contribute.

That's a pretty condescending response...

Sociology, Psychology, and Poly Science all have relevant uses in society. Pretty presumptive of you to assume they don't.

none will make you a lot of money, except at the very top of that field. . Well, a lot of politicians DO make money, but that has nothing to do with their college major.