Reminder: Your future employers care more about side projects and experience than some writing on a piece of paper. You don't need to go to college to be a kick ass programmer.
IT occupations: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...
'Computer programmers', 'software developers' and 'web developers' will get you to 1%. I think wpdev_63's message applies to some additional IT positions than just programmers, so I think 1-2% is about right.
EDIT: other options include working at startups/smaller companies, contributing to open source to get social validation of your abilities, learning some skills through coursera/online courses, ...
(And this was for an ops position, not development)
....
On the original topic, I went to an extremely cheap school and could not figure out where the money was going. It seemed like they must have been paying the professors $800/hour or something, with all the money involved. Of course they weren't. They were just pissing it away. With what college costs, a student should be able to have a private set of teachers in the manner of royalty--but then you wouldn't have those lovely dormitories they tear down and rebuild every few years.
That said if a recession hits there's gonna be some really, really nasty side effects as the predatory student loan industry destroys a large amount of the workforce.
That’s one specific case, but there’s miriades of other super corner cases.
Also many other countries have much more stratified systems and degrees are mandatory