I entirely agree with this, Neela.

There is a massive cognitive dissonance between the messages

1) You must have an academic college degree to prepare you for a decent job;

2) That college degree will cost you north of 100 grand before you even start looking for work, but it's a worthwhile investment;

3) Most of the jobs that exist now will have disappeared within a decade, and most of those that exist then don't yet exist, nor do the training courses for them.

Rather than a 'sound investment', which, as you say, the boomer generation - and even myself in Gen-X didn't have to make at all - that makes it a speculative punt.

Do it if you are thrilled by the subject itself for its own sake, and want or need the accompanying social experience. And if you are confident you can afford it.

If not - or in any case - look into more practical alternatives through vocational or on-the-job learning that will leave you free of the financial burden, and able to appraise opportunities on the fly, rather than waiting 4 years to see if what you've studied is relevant.

I spent 4 years studying modern languages at university. I am now a professional translator. But the relevance of those years of study to what I do now is negligible. Unsurprisingly, there is little call for translation of medieval poetry in the modern world.

The knowledge I need in my daily work, I picked up along the way through practical experience, and the important qualification I have, from the Institute of Linguists in London, UK, is simply a practical exam. You turn up on the day, sit the paper, and if you can do it, you pass. You're qualified. No mandatory 4 years studying the theory and history of translation since the days of Aristotle. Just show you can do the job.