I would argue that most people in college are not following their dreams, but rather following a defined path.
Is there some part of US society where they hire non-college graduates for a good career and bright future I don't know about? Because from what I hear even people who move to fairly large small cities with cash in hand get disappointed by the small city core, the career opportunities and rising housing costs.
As far as I know people aren't doing what they are doing because they are inspired, but because if they are going to get screwed over anyways they might as well try to have a say in how it happens.
Many called Ross Perot a nutjob when he coined the phrase "The great sucking sound of jobs leaving the country." I watched it happen.
We also watched the ratio of the highest paid employee/ lowest paid full time employee skyrocket. I understand that there are high performing employees, but economies need a large middle class who have income to buy products (without running up debt) for the economy to prosper.
Now we see people trying to support families on what were after school jobs for high school students... Times changed when offshoring became easy...
Look at the steel mills of the early 20th century. They had groups of people hoisting around huge pieces of steel on chains.
Look at a modern steel mills. All that hoisting is now done by heavy machinery control by one guy in an air conditioned operator cabin.
By offshoring or just the advancement of technology, those jobs are gone.
People just have to invent new ways to contribute to society - to say it’s “easier said than done” is understatement though; but there is really no other way.
When my dad gradutated high school in the mid 1970's, you could get a decent job with a high school diploma. Not having a HS diploma meant you were flipping burgers, but you could still find work. My uncle lived with my father (and mother) while working on his GED, which really didn't give him HS diploma status but was good enough to find slightly better work.
College basically meant you could make sure you had a steady salary for life and could definitely find work. You had much more than the minimum schooling.
At the end of the day it falls to parents to educate their children. The assumption that the world at large has (or will ever have) your family's interests in mind is horribly naïve and negligent. Schools can mostly be trusted to educate in an academic sense, but reality is not best learned through an iPad.