There's a simple bit of advice high school graduates often hear when deciding where to go to college and what to study when they get there: Pick something you love and follow your dream. Do that, and everything will work out.

Sounds great, except it isn't always true.

We can look at the growing mountain of student loan debt and rapidly rising default rates to see that these words have the potential to lead students into financial turmoil. Not every dream has a job attached to it.

And at a time when colleges and universities are under pressure to produce a ready workforce, this fact is pumping up the long-running ideological debate between those who see college as a vehicle to open the minds of young people and those who see it as a training ground for young capitalists.

It's a conflict that resonates with Etinosa Ogbevoen, 18, of Olivette. The recent graduate of Ladue Horton Watkins High School will soon begin her college career at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Her heart tells her she wants to help people. She envisions a career in nonprofits. And she'd love to study psychology.

Yet she plans to major in business administration, following the advice of friends and advisers who have steered her away from the popular social science often associated with lower-paying jobs. It's clear, however, that she's not completely sold on the plan. At the very least, she wants a psychology minor.

"I don't want to be older and struggling with a low-wage job," Ogbevoen said. "But I also want to do something I want to do."

MAKING DREAMS PAY

It's a challenge facing an army of college-bound men and women. For most, it will be their first major life decision, one in which ideals and dreams will run up against the economics of a world in which student debt recently topped the $1 trillion mark and default rates are nearing 9 percent.

One of the problems, critics say, is that students don't have enough information and guidance to help them avoid financially crippling mistakes.

High school advisers worry about getting students into college, where a new batch of advisers push them toward graduation. Career guidance takes a back seat, said Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

Carnevale, who studies the relationship between college degrees and pay levels, would like to see mandatory classes on every campus dedicated to career planning. And he's less than thrilled with the idea of telling students to chase dreams.

"I think that's irresponsible. It's not fair to them," said Carnevale, co-author of a 2011 report "What's it Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors."

The report slices and dices a wide range of data regarding more than 170 college majors. It includes a look at some of the best and worst bachelor's degrees, in terms of median annual pay.

Not surprisingly, the upper ranks are dominated by a host of engineering disciplines, including petroleum engineering ($120,000), chemical engineering ($86,000) and mechanical engineering ($80,000). At the lower end of the spectrum are things such as counseling/psychology ($29,000), early childhood education ($36,000) and studio arts ($40,000).

Carnevale and others stop far short of suggesting that students should shun these lower-paying degrees.

They just require more planning, both by the student and the school, he said.

There's nothing wrong with studying art. But, he said, "The school should be working with you to figure out how you are going to make art pay."

GUIDANCE ISSUES

Like virtually every other aspect of higher education, the quality and quantity of career guidance varies from campus to campus.

The University of Missouri, like many schools, offers a host of career centers — one shared by the entire campus and others situated within colleges on campuses. Mizzou's main office serves more than 8,000 students a year, through seminars, workshops and adviser sessions. They've started offering a $15 test, StrengthsQuest, that helps students identify skills and abilities that could translate into careers. And they offer a one-credit-hour career exploration class, which is taken by about 200 students a year.

Still, the school has to worry about more than simply churning out workers aiming for high-paying jobs, said Jim Spain, Mizzou's vice provost for undergraduate studies.

"We do provide folks with technical skills for specific jobs," he said. "At the same time, we have a broader responsibility to prepare our students to be citizens."

Others say it's a mistake to measure graduate success by salaries only.

"Really, you can follow your passion or you can follow the dollar signs. If they meld into one, that's great," said Bill Witbrodt, director of student financial services at Washington University.

A purely pragmatic approach to college degrees is the sort of thing that sets some educators on edge. Telling a student to prepare for a specific job, they say, can be just as detrimental as telling them to chase a dream.

"You have no idea if the job will be there when you get out, let alone 10 years later," said Sandy Baum, an independent higher education policy analyst and consultant.

Baum and others urge students to find a balance between pragmatism and idealism, and to follow a plan based on what they want their lives to look like after graduation. Often, those lower-salaried bachelor's degrees — particularly things such as psychology — can be significantly enhanced through a master's degree or doctorate.

"Everybody has to realize that the days of getting a degree and being done are over," said Linda Hagedorn, associate dean of undergraduate programs at Iowa State University and professor in the school's Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. "The reality for our bachelor degrees is that most of them do not prepare people for work. They educate you."

Still, there is evidence suggesting that students are increasingly looking at college as a gateway to employment.

Each year, the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at the University of California-Los Angeles conducts a survey of hundreds of thousands of incoming freshmen around the nation. The questions vary each year, but the survey offers insights into the motivations of college students.

A decade ago, about 70 percent of freshmen listed "to be able to get a better job" as a key reason for attending college. Last year, that number hit an all-time high of nearly 86 percent.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

The same survey also suggests students are more aware of the price of college. Of those surveyed, 40.6 percent of freshmen listed cost as a major factor in their choice of schools, up from 31 percent when the question was first asked in 2004.

It's a group that will be joined by Rachel McCormick, 17, of Maryland Heights, a soon-to-be Pattonville High School graduate.

She's bound for the Missouri University of Science and Technology, which edged out New York University largely based on price. Over four years, she figures it would have cost at least $40,000 more to attend the East Coast school.

"I didn't want my parents to be in debt for my education," McCormick said. "The total was really daunting."

This awareness is due, at least in part, to the advice grads such as McCormick receive from longtime college adviser Julie Kampschroeder.

She urges students at Pattonville to consider both the cost of a degree and its earnings potential when they make college decisions. It's become a favorite topic of hers, this concept of "return on investment," or ROI.

"Honestly, I wouldn't even have used those three letters a year ago," Kampschroeder said. "But when you have a trillion dollars in student loan debt, you have to start changing the way you think."