I think it might help to look at the larger cultural context.
K-12 students are constantly assailed by messages telling them that College is the route to higher earnings! The news media, educational establishment, and even the political establishment all send this message. Many parents say the same thing (I've even seen it pop up on this board on occasion).
These days, college isn't seen as a place where you go because you're bright and you want to learn stuff. It's seen as a route to earning more money than you would otherwise. Crass, but unfortunately, reality.
You can't really blame people for buying into this message given that it's ubiquitous and apparently true.* You also can't really blame people for not having an IQ as high as yours. They can't change who they are or how they were born.
If you think differently than more than 99% of the population, you need to make a different kind of effort at finding people who think like you. For example, google the Prometheus Society or the Triple Nine society.
Val
*I say apparently because the issue is more subtle than having a BA or not. Talented people tend to earn more because they're better at solving problems, not necessarily because they have a BA. For example, a person who's a really, really good electrician will probably earn more without a BA than he'd earn with a BA if he was, say, a marketing manager of average ability. Someone without a BA who learned programming in the Army might be a better software developer than someone else with a BA who's just average (or above...). It all depends.
I don't think this is the case, fortunately.
While I swear most of my classmates have the brains of a slime mold (and I unfortunately just insulted slime molds), I think they're there, as far as I've gathered, to learn and grow, which is what I believe college's primary purpose is and should be for, if you haven't figured that fact out already. I value my studies, especially in biology - which I consider more than just a 'career'; it is what I have devoted my life to and what I have made my purpose, and I value everything I know, and I value learning, period. I am very lucky that I was born into a family that has graduate degrees - otherwise I'd probably be so despondent about life I'd have killed myself.
This generation is, I'd say, more alright than its parents - a lot of their folks seem to look at college as a place to learn and grow. Perhaps some of them either don't remember their college years or are somehow resentful of their children's experiences.
