[toomanyrichies]

The decision to attend a private 4-year university has got to count as one of the biggest mistakes I've made in my young life. The 19 weeks I spent in coding bootcamp have been orders-of-magnitude more useful to my career than the 4 years I spent in college. Most people will never know less about life and what they want out of it than they do when they're in high-school. So in my mind it makes no sense to give someone like that the responsibility of a choice that will cost them and their families between tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars (depending on whether they choose public vs. private, in-state vs. out-of-state, etc.).

Knowing what I know now, I would have jumped at the chance to study for free in a place like Germany (as per danjoc's comment). That sounds like the perfect way to minimize the costs of what college purports to offer- a chance to broaden one's horizons and investigate possible directions one wants to take with their life.

[reaperducer]

I think the key phrase here is "young life."

When you get older, read more, travel more, experience more, you'll understand the value of a well-rounded education.

Or maybe not. Perhaps confining yourself to a one-track life and career path will prevent you from seeing, or being considered for, other opportunities in life. You'll never know.

[toomanyrichies]

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not demeaning the value of a well-rounded education. I agree that it's vital to a full life. My point is that colleges don't have a monopoly on well-rounded educations. For me at least, America's higher education system (and really, its high school system as well) depleted rather than fostered the kind of curiosity needed for life-long learning.

I'm using "young life" in the sense of "up to that point in my life". I'm now in my mid-30s and on my 3rd career (first in sales, then as an overseas ESL teacher, and now as a software developer). I've travelled to 20+ countries, lived in China and Europe, and had many wonderful experiences along the way. I'm grateful for the many careers I've had, which allow me to state with confidence that my current career is a great fit for me. But none of my experiences required that I attend the college I did and go into deep debt to do so. While (as you said) I'll never know for sure, my guess is that debt probably cut off just as many opportunities as it gave me.