Take it from a criminal justice major who ended up going into student loan debt because I felt like I just downright “needed” to get it from a university. NOTE, I’m not saying don’t go to college, I’m saying unless you are majoring in one of the fields I named, you’d be better off enrolling at a JUCO or Community College. Now if you have a scholarship then that’s a different story. I was originally in a community college but ended up transferring because that school only offered associate degrees (my other excuse for leaving lol). College as a whole is way too fucking expensive to begin with but I feel as though it would be more worth it if you were in the majors I mentioned. I do realize that there are many graduates who have majored in other fields and feel content and that’s great.
The education is only a small part of the benefit. While you’re there probably the most important thing you can do is network. Make friends, make acquaintances. Let them know what you’re studying and what you want to do. Sooner or later someone will be hiring and hopefully through their connections they can get to you, and now you’ve got a cushy well paying job.
You don’t need college to meet new people. But condensing a large group of people who want to do something with their lives is a great place to be.
I graduated from an elite university in my country within the STEM field, being the second best in the year or so. I can’t find a job because I never networked or did internships. I studied for the exams (which was easy) and otherwise got drunk with students and people from absolutely not my field. It feels like I wasted 6 years of my life.
People, for real, network. No one cares for your grades once you look for a job. They care whether you have experience, and you get both experience and the chance to talk about it when you network.