College degrees are no guarantee of a successful career. Indeed, they are no guarantee of a "career" at all. As a retired college professor, I have long argued that too many employers in the U.S. ask for college diplomas for jobs that in other industrialized societies are done by high school or community college graduates. Ask yourself, does the agent at a car rental office need a BS in business? A college degree helps to get your foot in the door, but does not guarantee a "career." As an additional thought, let me point out that in the long run college graduates with a general liberal arts degrees, say in History, tend to rise further in a firm than the graduates with specialized degrees such as accounting.