Most underemployed majors according to the U.S. Census American Community Survey

[spohara]

AFAIK, "underemployed" means "being in a job unrelated to your major and/or employed at a job that pays less than what you should be getting if you were in your correct field of work". Under those circumstances, paying a ton for those degrees is silly. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't get the degree you want. There is a huge, huge difference between going to a Liberal Arts college for $100k and getting a Liberal Arts degree from UMPI for less than $5k.

On the first half - job unrelated to major - that describes my wife, but I think her degree was somewhat worth it.  She did work in her field for a short time, which was criminal justice.  Then she moved into project management and was hired partly because she worked for a police department at one point and the company was tired of PMs doing unethical things (or outright theft) like giving inflated contracts to their buddies and taking cuts under the table.  Hiring manager just thought he could trust her and train her up on her knowledge gaps.  Second half of the definition doesn't fit at all, because there is no money in CJ and she's doing pretty well now.  There are also jobs out there where they just want someone with the critical thinking associated with a degree (whether true or not, it is an easy signal), and the major isn't all that important.