I have four college age kids. The oldest have Associates degrees. One is working toward her bachelors online and paying her way.
One wisely quit school after one semester realizing that what she wanted as a major would never pay enough to justify the degree.
Number three is a senior in a STEM related field, Aerospace Engineering. He has limited loans and will likely pay them off in a year or two.
Number four is registering to get his Class A CDL and wants to be a truck driver.
I told them early on that we’d help them with college expenses as we could if they were going into a field that required a legitimate degree, like engineering. Liberal arts-Not a chance.
Way too many philosophy majors working at Starbucks
I tell WBill Jr. that it's OK to want to be an expert in "Medieval English Literature", or whatever other interesting but useless discipline.
Go to school, learn a skill or field that will pay the bills, and that will finance learning everything that there is to know about your preferred subject on your free time. "Both", is always an option in this case. It's one of those rare instances where you can have your cake and eat it too.
Unfortunately, there are all too many "Guidance Counselors" and College Admins that coach kids to "follow their dreams". Dreams are great, so long as they involve a topic that puts food on the table.
And, from my own experience, I'd *never* coach my kid into making his hobby into a career. I used to love computers, that's why I wound up in IT. Made a solid career out of it, and I don't particularly mind my job. However, a side effect is that I now can't stand computers, or anything electronic. I look at them all @#$@$@ day, no desire to do anything at all with them after hours. So - I gained a decent living, but lost something that I used to particularly enjoy.