Lowering Expectations?

As a most-likely-soon-to-be-unemployed third year law student, I find myself asking whether we are encouraging too many students to get college degrees. There are plenty of necessary fields where an apprenticeship program or other training is what people really need. That B.A. in English may look nice on the wall, but is it really useful? (I should know; I've got one hanging on my wall. I'm looking at it right now).

There are only so many job opportunities in certain professional fields. Law is probably the most obvious example of this; academia is another. If all we're encouraging young people to do is spend four years (or more) taking random classes, partying, and learning about "diverse cultures," while at the same time obtaining few useful job skills and racking up huge amounts of debt, are we really doing anyone a favor?

My dad and I actually disagree on this point. He thinks there is intrinsic value in an education, by which he means a broad liberal arts education. I would agree with him, except I have thousands of dollars worth of debt from that liberal arts education. That education is worthless unless you can get a job to pay for it.

I'm not saying we shouldn't have high standards. Obviously, we need to encourage students to reach their full potential. Currently, however, more and more jobs are requiring Bachelor's degrees when that type of education really isn't needed to do the job. Qualified people who chose not to get a four-year degree, perhaps because they didn't want to or couldn't pay for it, are being denied jobs which they could certainly do. College is becoming a trap.