Originally Posted by
Cloudship
How much value is there to learning programs such as Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, etc.? Are these programs that every college student should learn, or are they so specialized that they are only useful to designers?
Agree with others, these skills are very important for those in certain lines of work, but not so much beyond that. If you're preparing for a career in finance, economics, programming, etc., there are probably better uses of your time.
Originally Posted by
Cloudship
If you were outfitting a college computer lab, would you invest in this software, or leave it to the specialized labs?
Definitely specialized labs, unless you are operating under a concurrent use license. Keep in mind other technology is typically required by serious users of these software packages - higher CPU, GPU, and RAM specs, monitors with more accurate color reproduction (i.e. IPS panels as opposed to the TN panels found in most monitors), etc.