[karim79]

Weirdly enough, my dad spent roughly the same on my college (in Ireland).

I had no hopes nor expectations as to how my degree would end up being of benefit. It allowed me to see another part of the world, and "learn how to learn" so to speak.

I ended up doing another course in computing at the same time, which I had to pay for myself, using any and all free time I had during the college course, paid for by a shitty call center job I managed to get which paid, at the time, about EUR 3,60 / hour.

Later on, I went from approx. 1000 EUR / month in my first professional gig as a Java dev, to doubling that in the same establishment by getting promoted.

Then I got hired by a fortune 500 and left my country of origin (not Ireland) which paid....so much more. Then founding a startup, and now...

My conclusion is that the learning-to-learn aspect of it is of utmost importance. I think college is great for learning how to learn, even more than the content of what it happens to be that one is pursuing.