<p>UMMom, keep in mind that Starbucks might not want to hire your unemployed engineer because he’s overqualified. 
They’d like people who will stick around for awhile, or at least will commit fully while they’re hoping for something better. Given a choice between an unemployed engineering major and an unemployed journalism or english major, I’d bet that the Starbucks manager won’t be hiring the engineer. </p>
<p>Speaking for our family alone, we don’t expect first jobs out of college to match (let alone exceed) COA for the offspring.</p>