If being a doctor or lawyer is looked down upon in the Yiddishe Velt, then RAMBAM must be a real pariah, and ALL the members of the Sanhedrin, and every DAYAN in a Beis Din, should be censured for serving in the court system.
Having a college degree is no guarantee of a job, but NOT having one is almost CERTAIN to guarantee a much more difficult time in finding and making a decent parnassah today. Even our greatest Rabbanim held jobs in ancient times. R’ Yochanan was a shoemaker. R’Yehuda Hanasi ran businesses. RAMBAM was a doctor, and not even in E”Y. Many of our meforshim were Sofrim, poets, translators, advisors to kings and other heads of state.
In today’s world, we have to ensure that our children are educated, so that they can compete in the world twenty, thirty, forty years down the line. If no one of this generation of young people is earning a living, who will provide for THEIR children? Education at least gives them an edge over the non-educated.Not everyone’s father owns a business for them to fall into.
And college does not in and of itself = OTD. That is just nonsense. There are plenty of VERY frum people male and female who go to college. One simply has to used discretion and seichel when deciding where to go.