If the choice is between not going to college vs. earning a degree, statistically you earn more simply by having a college degree, regardless of the major. Bachelor Degree holders, on average, earn a million dollars more during their life time than those who only have a high school diploma. Even if you are accounting for lost earning potential, cost of tuition, supplies etc... your still talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars more earned than if you were to not achieve a degree. If you are talking in relation to going to university for a STEM degree vs. going to school for art history, you could certainly argue that STEM will will always make more. But I would still recommend young people go to school over not. Even if it is something 'useless'. Either way you slice it, the data indicates that encouraging youth to go to college is still worth it. Even with how expensive college is.

Median Lifetime Earnings: https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2011/c...

Cost of School and Lost Earnings vs High School Grad: https://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/educatio...

BLS on Pay by Education https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/more-education-still-means...