<p>My husband and I both have BA degrees. His is in English and Linguistics and mine is in Spanish Literature. In total we're about $60,000 in debt. We were both told all our lives "follow your passions, money will follow". That isn't true. He is unemployed and on food stamps, and I am stuck at a job that pays $14/hr with no possibility of upward mobility. We both regret going to college. We feel tricked. Basically if someone doesn't study STEM they are destined to being unemployed/poor their whole lives (unless they know someone who can rig an interview for that sweet $60k job working in HR or whatever). </p>
<p>What about you? Do you regret going to college/studying what you did? </p>
<p>I have absolutely no regrets in going to college; it changed my life.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but did either of you look at your prospects for jobs in the areas of Spanish Literature and English? Did he get a teaching credential? or a Speech Pathology license? The idea is to follow your passions but to be realistic. Didn’t you have any guidance from your professors or counselors as to what you would and could do with your degrees? </p>
<p>When you go to college, you are expected to research what you will do with your degree, BEFORE you graduate, and what you will be when you “grow up”. Money does follow people who actually do some leg work; no job is handed to you in a very specialized field. No one tricked you. You didn’t fulfill your parts, so now both of you are stuck. </p>
<p>I’m not STEM and I speak Spanish fluently, studied Communication Disorders, which involved the study of linguistics and English, and I’m a speech pathologist. (Look at the job boards for Speech Pathologists, the field is desperate for speech pathologists; but you have to be licensed and credentialed {which is what you do in school before you leave}). There are plenty of other college grads who are not STEM and they have livable wage jobs.</p>
<p>I got a BS and MS in engineering, so I’m happy I went to college! I met my husband in grad school, and in 1999 we started our own consulting firm that we run out of our house in the woods. Sometimes life is kind of crazy around here, trying to keep up with work plus three kids and a dog, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.</p>