Attending college used to be the obvious answer. If you wanted solid job opportunities with the promise of future job security, a college degree was the only way to go.

Today, the security that comes with attending college is no longer a guarantee. Which made Georgetown University beg the question: Does it still pay to get a college degree?

According to a new study released byGeorgetown, a college degree still does pay off? that is, if you get the right one. As Anthony Carnevale, the report's co-author and director of Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce says, "The labor market demands more specialization. So, the game has changed."

Among other findings, Georgetown's study identified the areas and majors of recent college graduates with the most and least unemployment.

Here's a snapshot of their findings:

• Degrees with the lowest unemployment rates: education (5%), engineering (7%), and health and the sciences (4.8%), likely attributable to their stable or growing industry sectors.

• Degrees with higher unemployment rates: clerical functions (14.7%), non-technical majors like art and music (9.8%) and communications majors (8%).

Researchers behind the study are quick to advise students to be especially careful in this economy. They say that while some industries that sound like promising fields (biomedical engineering, for example), are actually not as lucrative as they appear.

Carnevale warns that college guidance in high school is generally set up to help schools fulfill their curriculum requirements? not to foster students' career goals and expectations.

As Carnevale says, "If the goal of higher education is to help people live more fully in their time, they need more information." It's up to our education system to make sure that happens.

To make sure that you have the best information to select your college and major, check out Noodle's college search to find the right college to fit your career goals.