In the US a half century ago any college degree would set you on the path to middle class, or better, prosperity.

College today is a competition for a few good jobs:

• Half of all recent grads are under employed or unemployed.
• Twenty-five percent of all minimum wage jobs are held by college graduates.
• Fifty-one percent of recent college grads are making only $35,000 or less.

In this economic environment majoring in Humanities or many of the social sciences can be problematical. These degrees may very well end up being what Dr. Kenneth C. Gray describes as an “ANY” degree.

Dr. Gray wrote a book, Another Way To Win, two decades ago. In the book, he described the “One Way to Win” philosophy being followed by many high school graduates. Gray was concerned about the misdirection of the “academic middle” as they were being unproductively channeled into four-year colleges. In the ensuing twenty years, the problem has gotten worse. Today even the top academic students are at risk.

Here are the four steps of OWTW:

• Graduate from high school.
• Enroll in a four-year college.
• Graduate with ANY degree.
• Become gainfully employed in a well-paying, professional job.

At one time this strategy worked, but college in America doesn’t work the way it used to. There are four reasons why:

Supply vs Demand

There is a HUGE supply (graduates) and demand (good jobs) problem. A half century ago only seven percent of high school graduates went on to college. In post-WW II America our economy was booming while the economies of many European and Asian countries were–only slowly–being rebuilt. The “Law of Supply and Demand” strongly favored the freshly minted college graduate.

Today, when forty percent go on to college, grads are “a dime a dozen.” In the last nine years, we haven’t seen one year of 3% GDP growth. In the post-Great Recession of 2008, we are slogging through the longest and slowest recovery since the Great Depression.

Skills Misalignment

There is a skills misalignment problem. The skills obtained earning a four-year degree increasingly don’t match the skills required in the workforce. The college curriculum changes slowly. The work world is changing faster and faster.

Return on Investment

There is an ROI issue. With the cost of tuition up 200% in the past twenty years and stagnant wages, some degrees just don’t make any financial sense anymore.

Deterioration in Quality

There is a quality issue. The quality of the four-year degree has deteriorated over the last fifty years, and the employers know it. The growing consensus on the part of employers is that most college grads are arriving unprepared to.

There was a time in America when a degree in Humanities or social sciences would open the door to a professional career. Today that is much less likely. I would encourage you to heed the advice of the late Dr. Stephen Covey, businessman, author, and educator. A quarter century ago Dr. Covey wrote his most famous work, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. These “habits” are just as powerful today as they were twenty-five years ago.

In particular, when considering a major, see Habit #2:

“Begin with the end in mind.”

Usually, young people, about to embark on the college experience, are just thinking about getting accepted at a good college, or perhaps capturing that desirable piece of paper. I would encourage you to focus on how this college experience is going to translate into your getting that first well-paying job.

You need to be thinking in terms of “building a resume.”

“Readin’, writin’, and arithmetic” was good enough in Grandma’s days; it’s not good enough today.

Your resume should include clear demonstrations of grit, self-motivation, critical thinking skills, communication skills, and creativity as well as experience with collaborative activities, entrepreneurship, and improvisation. You don’t need to be an expert with Ruby on Rails, but you should be able to show some rudimentary coding abilities.

It is going to be easier to build this resume at some schools rather than others One key factor is how well connected your school/program is to the real world. You are going to have to go beyond the classroom seeking experiential learning opportunities: internships, externships, foreign travel, research, volunteering, work, etc.

With an outstanding resume, you will improve your odds of ending up in the gainfully employed half of those college grads.