I have grave misgivings about the value of a non-technical college education in this job market.
Many in the higher education system would argue we get a lot of wonderful intellectual stimulation from a college education, which is true. I learned a lot in college and feel far more able to contextualize things that happen in the world around me than before I returned to school. I was exposed to new ideas and developed my critical thinking skills considerably.
But was it worth the exorbitant cost? Well, that's another question entirely.
All the gratifying and rigorous intellectual activity in the world won't persuade an employer that you are competent when you are competing with laid-off mid-career professionals for entry-level jobs, regardless of your actual level of competence. I enter every interview a blank slate - my diploma roughly equivalent to a statement of my existence as a breathing member of the human race. No more. Certainly not competent or knowledgeable about anything whatsoever. Few would assume, as a recent graduate, that I am endowed with enough capability to tie my own shoes, much less handle any complex tasks like, say, using a computer, answering phones, or delivering mail. Managing projects or thinking? Don't make me laugh.
The fact is, it has become extraordinarily difficult for a college graduate in any but a very few, select fields to land a job making enough money to put a roof over their head, much less mail in regular hefty student loan payments. (My tuition rose by double digits every single semester I was in college. I thought I had saved enough in advance to make it through without debt, and ended up owing $35,000 for a state University.)
A college degree in anything other than engineering, medicine, business accounting/economics, or computer science is a luxury most students can ill afford. Too bad their high school counselors don't inform them of that.
In the end, all those liberal arts and other non-technical majors out there are likely to end up with the same jobs they had before they went to college. Oh, they'll find promotion easier - but did they really spend all that time and money learning about the history of science in the Enlightenment, the theory of postmodernist thought, the political psychology of postwar presidents, and the philosophy of environmentalist nongovernmental organizations so they could more easily be promoted to Assistant Manager at the local Gap or a member of the administrative pool at the local temp agency while their laid-off parents apply for and get all those "entry level" jobs in the absence of any alternative during this "jobless recovery"? Is all that education going to make them happier Assistant Managers at the Gap? After a long career, might they look forward to paying off their ridiculous student loans with their first social security checks? Or perhaps one day working their way up to the lofty height of store, or even district manager (or perhaps "office manager" jobs at that benighted temp agency) with a heady adjusted income of $50,000 per year and maybe even a "medical savings plan"?
Shit.
I guess I'm not sorry I went to college. I'm terribly, terribly sorry it cost so much money, though. I'm now making less money than before I returned to school, and have way, way more debt. Call me mercenary for caring about money if you want, but my tooth hurts and I can't afford to take it to the dentist. All the lofty educational ideas in the world aren't distracting me from a painful tooth and empty bank account I've spent several years of my life working for a better future, only to discover that thanks to the rotten Bush Administration and their "jobless recovery" and endless education funding cuts, I might as well not have bothered.
Oh, but if anyone wants to chat about the socioeconomic impact of globalization on developed economies, the history of pre-Renaissance art, or how pop culture impacts the social fabric of modern America - no problem.