A motivated hard working go getter can still get a college ed at a public school without mortgaging her future.
But if you pay 100K to go to culinary school I don't have much sympathy. Maybe Stanford isn't in your future,
but you can have a damn nice future at some lesser in state option, whatever your state.
Stay in state, pick a major with prospects, don't party too hard and hustle your ass. It will work out in the long run.
Oh, and don't fucking have children until you are at least 34 and gainfully employed, and no more than 2.
Lecture over.
I think when people start inserting their subjective worth on certain degrees, you lose the entire point.
Those degrees you might think of as "lesser" also form the foundation of advanced degree work. Sociology, for example, might seem like a worthless major. But then when you ace your sociology degree, that opens up the door for you to go for a Master's, or a teaching certificate, or a PHD. Also, massive corporations are desperate to hire sociology and psychology majors because of the insight they can give to customer acquisition. You have to understand the psychology of your customer base in order to market to them.
In my view, getting a college degree isn't the only component of attending college. You also learn critical thinking skills, analysis skills, and other intangibles that can't be quantified by a degree. Exposure to other cultures, ideas, perspectives...all that happens in higher education and it doesn't happen in the workforce. The intangible skills you learn at college also play a major part in making you employable. The Chairman of WarnerMedia, Bob Greenblatt, was a theater major in college.