Too many people are telling kids to go to college to get a degree so that they can earn money. Sure, that worked for me because my job requires a license you need a professional degree to get but the path to simply earning good money is SOOOO much simpler than that. Plumbers and welders make GREAT money and we need more of them.
There really is no such thing as a useless major. There are however millions of misguided youth who are missing out on making money because the notion of going to college to achieve financial security has been drilled into them beginning in middle school by ****ty guidance counselors and narrow minded parents.
I completely agree with this. Phrased a bit harshly, perhaps, but still spot-on.
My feeling is now the college degree is not valued by employers because it denotes a certain set of specific job-related skills, but a preparation in general background content knowledge, and, perhaps more importantly, a sign of dedication and commitment to a purpose.
In college, no one makes you select a major, register for classes, go to class, do your homework, study for tests, apply to graduate, make sure you have all required courses, etc etc. In this way it serves more as a general "Are you capable of being a competent adult yet?" heuristic. Employers like to see that people they are working are competent individuals, because they will train you in whatever job-specific skills they want/need.
(Clearly there may be some exceptions to this where the background content knowledge is highly specific and required for work. However, I would argue these fields are now being pushed to grad work, i.e. law and doctor, etc.)
As a hs teacher, the "college degree is useful to get money" myth is waaaaaaay too pervasive in our current society (or the adolescent cross-section I interact with). Yes, people with college degrees tend to make more money, but that doesn't mean that the college degree is what
caused them to make more money.
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