I'd argue that Marin isn't like these stereotypes at all.
Marin is its own separate entity. The North part of the county thinks the south part of the county is pretentious. The South part of the county thinks the north is full of unwashed scum.
I regret not studying accounting the first time around and not leaving the tech industry sooner. I realized after my first job that I do not care about computers and that they do not really advance society.
Its called becoming an accountant. You can get your CPA units at a very low cost through community college and major in anything you want in upper division.
"Close-mindedness that would make John Calvin blush."
I swear that some of you (Silicon Valley autists) can think only memetically. Truly a tragedy.
"There is no chance I would let a university humanities department anywhere near my children at this point."
They wouldn't let your child in it to begin with.
Let me share an anecdote: Out of the seven friends that I have that graduated with engineering degrees, only 1 is still an engineer. Most regret it since it hampered their social skills.
On the other hand, the Chinese language and History double major is pulling in bank by luring in Chinese real estate investment. He is easily the most happy out of all of us.
STEM is a meme that needs to die. America does not need any more biology, chemical engineering or physics undergrads. It needs stats, philosophy, and accounting undergrads. It needs people who can maneuver political systems with ease. It needs people who can approach a problem from 15 different angles and see them for what they are.
You should go to community college if you're in your first two years. You'll cut tuition by 2/3s at least and you'll receive the same level of not great education.
We need to go backwards. Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and 4chan aren't developing any new ideas. They need to be shut down. Appoint a non-Trump leader as King. Funnel the engineers into military roles. Castes need to come back. Let there be priests to sedate the masses.
This is negated if you view it purely as job related and not self improvement.
There's no reason you can't learn to do research at an R1 in undergrad. There's no reason you can't go full thrust into your studies. There is no reason you can choose to be no longer socially inept high schooler you once were.
That being said, most won't take advantage of this. We simply have too many 4 year colleges and too many students. Trade school will hit this point at some point too. The answer is to decredentialize certain jobs but no one wants to hear that.
Very very similar to my path. Graduated with a geography degree. Got into a planning job but left after 6 months because I didn't want to spend my life arguing about people's fence heights. Ended up becoming a CPA instead.
Marin is its own separate entity. The North part of the county thinks the south part of the county is pretentious. The South part of the county thinks the north is full of unwashed scum.