With college tuition and fees rapidly increasing and hovering at an average of $7,605 a year, it’s becoming easier to question whether or not it’s worth putting yourself in debt for the knowledge and connections.
Jesse at PF Firewall went to college and pens a post advising youngsters not to follow in his footsteps. Buried in student loans, Jesse says he went to school for the wrong reasons – a love of learning and because he was told he needed a degree to get anywhere in life.
College grads, what did your degree for you, and would you do it all over again if you could go back in time?
Why I Went To College And Why You Shouldn’t [PF Firewall]
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Going to college is only worth it if you major in something practical/useful, and if you don’t want to major in something practical/useful, then you better make sure you’re in an excellent school whose reputation can save you from your Goldfish studies major.
I don’t regret going to college or my major (economics), as it’s given me an opportunity to go to grad school (one of my major goals in life since I was a child), the job I want require at least a Master’s degree, and my high GPA and the skills I learned at uni will further help me get my dream job or at least something similar to it. I avoided student loans, only getting a $5500 one to study abroad once, kept my grades up, did plenty of research with professors and internships. I loved it.
The MA that I want, however, I’m not sure whether it’ll be worth it or not. The perfect MA that I want is around $100k, and there are cheaper options, but they don’t carry the reputation the school with the $100k one does. I don’t know whether to go with less debt or a more recognized name on my resume.
Going to college is only worth it if you major in something practical/useful, and if you don’t want to major in something practical/useful, then you better make sure you’re in an excellent school whose reputation can save you from your Goldfish studies major.
I don’t regret going to college or my major (economics), as it’s given me an opportunity to go to grad school (one of my major goals in life since I was a child), the job I want require at least a Master’s degree, and my high GPA and the skills I learned at uni will further help me get my dream job or at least something similar to it. I avoided student loans, only getting a $5500 one to study abroad once, kept my grades up, did plenty of research with professors and internships. I loved it.
The MA that I want, however, I’m not sure whether it’ll be worth it or not. The perfect MA that I want is around $100k, and there are cheaper options, but they don’t carry the reputation the school with the $100k one does. I don’t know whether to go with less debt or a more recognized name on my resume.
Number one, you don’t need to go to college right out of high school, especially if you have no idea what it is you want to do. For some people, it’s better to try their hands at something and then go back to school.
Number two, not every high-paying job requires (or is helped by) a college degree. Consider going to a trade school and becoming a plumber, electrician, or anything else along those lines.
Number three, if you do need a college degree, you don’t have to go to an expensive private school. The benefit does not scale with the price tag. If you’re going to take out loans, try to go to a less expensive public school (lots of them are really great!) and be sure to choose a field that’ll help you pay those loans back when you’re done. Love of learning is great (I share it!) but it’s a luxury; get what you can afford out of school and then learn on your own for the rest of your life.
Number four, if you really are brilliant, you’ll be able to get into a school that can afford to give you financial aid. It’s a common refrain that the very rich can afford tuition, the very poor get full financial aid, and the middle class get crushed by loans, and to some extent it’s true. But the very best schools give significant financial aid even to families making well over $100,000/year with just one kid in school.
I was very lucky. My family could afford to send me to school without, and I got into a school that wouldn’t have made me take loans even if my parents could not have paid. But I saw what my friends from high school and college did. Some friends took out $150k in debt to go to private school… to become middle school teachers; I think they should have gone to a cheaper public university. I saw less-bright friends go to not-very-good-but-expensive colleges with no plan at all, and now they have a degree they’ll never use. And I saw friends go to great schools on financial aid, do as little work as possible, and waste a chance many others would have loved.
It gave me my job and my career. In my chosen profession, there’s no way in except a degree.
Could I have had a career without college? Probably, but I like what I do, and I liked going to college. If I had to do it all over again, I probably would have tried to finish faster by cutting down on extracurriculars and, um, partying.
College may not be worth it for soft fields, unless you want to teach, but it is certainly worth it for hard fields. It’s very easy to tell the electrical engineer or software engineer (as opposed to programmer) who never went to college. They’re the ones badly reinventing the things you should have already learned.
As an easy example (and realizing you can get calculus in high school as well), I can’t even count the number of times I’ve seen software try to reinvent calculus without realizing it – at the base calculus is just figuring rate of change (derivation) and accumulation (integration). So where’s the local minimum or maximum on a curve? It’s where the derivative is zero. If you already know that then the code is trivial. If you don’t then you write increasingly convoluted horrors.
More to the point, employers know this, and if you want to be a EE or ME, you had better have that degree. If you want to be a personal finance manager, then maybe you don’t need it.
Demeaning “college” doesn’t work unless you’re talking about what programs/degrees people are working towards. Sorry for all you liberal arts majors out there, but it’s unlikely you got where you did because of your degree.
People who go to college and get a degree in engineering, programming, or basically any program that grants a BS, is going to be helpful in acquiring a job. These programs don’t teach you “how to think” or “learning about the world,” they give you real, marketable skills that employers look for.
I got my degree in an engineering discipline and it was a great opportunity that allowed me to enter my chosen profession (after graduate school), and I make a pretty healthy salary only a few years out of school.
Yeah, there are people out there doing better than me, but I’m happy with my decision and choice of schools.
A degree can certainly be worthwhile if you have a specific endpoint in mind. For those interested in graduate school, for example, a strong undergrad performance is essentially mandatory.
Aside from that, I think education has strayed far from its original purpose of preparing individuals for a productive, happy, well-informed life.
As career schools and technical institutions providing practical skills gain credibility they ought to win over a substantial portion of students who currently elect to get a liberal arts degree for perceived lack of better option.
In short, the choice of higher education should be goal-oriented; if you want to get a liberal arts degree for the sake of personal fulfillment, that is fantastic, but recognize that from a financial standpoint it may not be as sound an investment as other avenues of education.
As an aerospace engineer I pretty much have to have a degree to do my job. The technicians I work with mostly have associates degrees or similar experience. I’d do it again even though it kicked my butt.
We come to this country, pay a sh*t load of tuition (if we start from undergrad), then get paid sub-unemployment-benefit “stipend” as graduate student for publishing top quality research articles, keeping this country in leading position on all these fields. then we graduate, with a PhD degree, find a job as researcher, being paid about 60% of a assembling line worker.
And we are being blamed for “stealing” all those high-tech jobs in America, as if any stall standing American would want to do these jobs.
And we still think it is worthy. We still LOVE this country.
“tall standing”. Foreigner can’t spell. Sorry.
I don’t know a single profession that would hire someone without a college degree
So good luck with the idea that college isn’t worth it because in my life that deals with several different professions, no college degree = no job
Why would one go to college, if not to learn or earn a degree? I’m pretty sure there are cheaper ways of getting drunk and acting stupid or nabbing an internship.
Hasn’t done me a bit of good, and I’m deep in debt. I started my own business, and even though the degree looks good on paper, I could have gotten where I am without it.
I got an ivy league engineering degree a long time ago. The sheepskin was worth it, but the first two years of education was horrible – large classes, illiterate instructors. My high school AP classes were much better. The last two years weren’t bad. I always told people, consider a junior college for the first two years – ace the classes, get personalized attention, then transfer into a “good sheepskin school” for your last two years. I had a roommate take that approach – easy cheap way to a High GPA and he then went to Hopkins medical school.
Maybe things have changed, but I figured I’d share this approach.
My undergrad degree gave me a great overall liberal arts & sciences education, made me a critical thinker and prepared me for a specific career. My graduate degree allowed me to advance in that career and now I am a well-compensated worker in a fairly stable job market. It’s also important to note that I paid my way through a “no name” commuter school, then went to a better regarded grad school and now work for a very prestigious company with ivy-leaguers as both co-workers and underlings.
I certainly would do it all over again.
1. Getting a degree tells an employer something very basic about a person. They start something and complete a task. I can train you to do anything in a job, but I need to know will you follow through.
2. A college degree is not always about the money. Knowledge is valuable in and of itself. I have a masters degree and still take classes all the time. Many do not relate to my field, but I enjoy learning about different things in the world.
3. There are anamolies out there, but statistics do not lie about what a college graduate earns over a life time versus what a high school graduate earns. Currently the number is nearly a million dollars over the course of a lifetime. Even the most expensive schools will not cost that much.
He has over $50,000 in loans and he didn’t even pay attention to them? That’s not a problem with college, that’s a problem with *him*.
As far as a degree, it depends on what you value in life and what fields you want to work in. I plan on working in healthcare, where a degree is necessary for most fields, and I feel like the classes I’ve taken so far have really improved who I am as a person, and I’m 2 years into a bachelor’s with only $6k in debt because I have a part-time job in my field and make smart financial decisions. Going to college for a love of learning is only a bad idea if you go to a school where you’re going to get $50,000+ in loans and you’re SO bad at finances that you just ignore them.
I have a friend who has a University of Michigan degree with nearly 20 years in broadcast television. He’s been laid off for a long time and recently got a job as a part-time janitor. The really sad part, he’s really excited to be working again.
You could be talking about me–unemployed librarian-slash-postal-service-mail-handler. I am really, really thrilled. No, really. I’m making BANK! As in, $10 an hour more than $0 an hour.
I dropped out of high school after 11th grade and went directly to the community college. While the rest finished high school, I was able to obtain 2 years of transferable credits for $10 per credit hour, $620 for 62 credits. On April 1, 82 I was driving by my high school and I just had to stop by. I showed the principle my Dental License and asked if I qualified for the high school diploma. He then checked and found that I was listed as a drop out. He then went into a safe and pulled out a 1974 Diploma and asked if I would’nt mind if he typed my name on it. I really had no choice in dropping out. They wanted me to take 4 study halls since I had taken all the advanced classes in 11th grade.
We had a girl who “walked” with my high school class as a junior, but she graduated early because she decided to take a class (some sort of English, I think) at the community college during her last semester. The school knew and had no problem with it. This was about ten years ago.
What bothers me is colleges and universities offer so many degree programs that can’t begin to lead to jobs that can pay back the student loans. What you have is the higher education providers charging exorbitant rates of tuition, simply because the student can get loans. They are feeding their high-cost programs off of poor students and the taxpayers.
This model only works for degrees that actually lead to well paying jobs where there is demand, e.g. engineering, sciences, etc. Your typical liberal arts majors are not among them.
This is a scandal. When potential students get smart enough to realize their undergrad degrees aren’t a ticket to a good, well-paying job, there will eventually be a collapse of the system. Higher education is now riding a bubble – one thing we know about bubbles is that sooner or later, bubbles burst and crash.
As for my education and my wife’s, neither Bachelor’s degree helped much in terms of income, but our Master’s degrees were very helpful, particularly mine. That GPA did matter, it was high enough to score me an interview and ultimately a job, but that was 30 years ago.
I T usually requires certifications. This is an old requirement as well. By the turn of the century I T some companies wanted upto 3 certifications in wether it be networking or microsoft but they want certifications. I know college grads and experienced IT workers who couldn’t get squat due to the lack of certifications. Networking and/or something like Cisco are the certifications to get.
The problem with certifications are that usually you must take a preparation course along with the certification test. It’s not a bad thing but it can get expensive. And certifications frequently need updating or again you are a disadvantage to those who got certified in the latest and greatest.
Jesse at PF Firewall went to on online college that costs more per year than most real colleges. That was his mistake, not going to college in general.
I went to school to get a job. Chemical Engineering was one of the highest paying undergraduate degrees, so I went that way. I suffered for 4 years and got my BS. Once I got a job I learned what I loved and went that way.
My wife loved learning and got an English degree. She then went for a Masters in Social Work. I still make more than twice what she does and enjoy my work. It’s pretty sad that this is still debatable. There are things that are in demand and for a tough few years you can fill that demand.
Or you can pretend that life is a matter of what you want rather than what your boss or your employer wants and wonder why you can’t make any money for the rest of your life.
Shockingly, it is possible for life to be what you want AND be financially productive.
100% agree. I did my B.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering and got a job I really enjoy with a great salary. I graduated only 2 years ago, into a very shitty economy, and everyone still tells me they can’t find enough engineers to fill their ranks. I continue to get contacted for interviews. Truth is, if you work hard in college and enjoy what you’re doing, you can find work.
However, it is unfair for any engineers commenting to this article to talk since working as a credible engineer practically anywhere requires an engineering degree from an ABET-accredited college, rendering the question of going to college moot.
If I didn’t have my B.S. I wouldn’t have the job I have now. They required a bachelor’s degree, but it didn’t matter what it was in. My degree emphasis was TV and film production, but I work in IT. The education I gained didn’t do a thing for me. Thankfully I went to a cheap state school (and now I work there!).
My BA got me some okay corporate jobs in publishing. My master’s degree in library science got me nothing but $40K in loans. Earned MSLIS in 2007; now work for the US Postal Service slinging boxes alongside people with GEDs. (Nothing wrong with GEDs; plus, they’re cheaper than postgrad degrees.) I don’t dislike the work; it’s just damn silly that this is how it ended up. At least there’s no one to inherit my debt. Acme Student Usury is never, ever getting that money back.
I think whether you should or shouldn’t go to college depends on where you are in life. If you’re in a position to say what it is you want out of life, you can make a reasonable choice that will probably fit what you expect. If you go to college expecting it to be magical with a pot of gold when you graduate…well, maybe you should wait.
Many commenters here make excellent points. And in any given situation, a degree may or may not be a deciding factor. I know for my own job, my manager only hires people with college degrees because he has one and he knows the value one gets from said degree. What is my position? Software developer. And my computer science degree absolutely made a difference to me. But that’s how it is for most engineering grads. It’s hard to be an engineer (at least professionally) without a degree.
I would say that, all things being equal, having a degree is more likely to get you into the interview that not having a degree (unless we’re talking about slinging burgers at McDonald’s.) What you do after that is all up to you.
Compared to my friends who focused on a career instead of college all my degree got me was in debt. It was a very expensive piece of paper.
Wow phil posted something decent?
Anyways in the end, the degree is only as good as the person accepting it. Working with computers I can tell you first hand that a degree doesn’t mean squat if you don’t know your stuff, or at least if you don’t know more than the next guy. You can get a college grad, for…. oh… let’s say computer programming. He knows the stuff they taught him there. Now, you’ve got this other guy who’s been programming almost every day of his life, can whip up just about any program in a jiffy. Now, who would you rather have in your company (mind you, the place where your employee’s skills will determine how good of a company it is), the guy who got his degree and took him only 4 years, or the guy who’s been using his skills for a far longer time?
I’m not saying college is a complete waste or anything, I’ve seen some successfully people come out of college. Point is it could put you in a worse bind than before you went to college. I’m still paying off my student loans from when I went. Was it worth it? Not in the very least, especially coming from a college where the “instructors” would leave every couple of months, some didn’t show up most of the time (yes, the instructors). Even right now where our economy isn’t in the best shape it’s been in, I would’ve been far better off in my current situation had it not been for student loans, but hey, that’s all apart of the college life, being completely broke right?
I went to the Air Force Academy–granted it was 4 years of hell, but the education was free and I was guaranteed a job after graduating. When I left the AF, employers were impressed by my alma mater for its reputation and the fact I made it through–despite my less than stellar GPA.
Would I do it again? Hell no. Knowing what I know now I would have taken one of my full-ride ROTC scholarships and gone to a normal school.
this guy is another idiot who went to college and didn’t intern, work, etc to get his life worked out. i make connections and made shit happen with an excellent degree and when i graduated i went after jobs and landed a great one. without it i wouldn’t have been hired.
An idiot who didn’t intern? I guess by “idiot” you mean someone who couldn’t afford to work for free. Or, heaven forfend, chose not to.
What I learned in college was how to research things and how to think critically. There is no dollar value one can place on those. The idea that education must be boiled down to a financial equation leaves out reams of “intangibles” that, likewise, can never have any monetary value assigned to them. To do so is foolish.
And yes, I would most certainly do it again, if I could go back in time. I might pursue a different major, but I absolutely would do so again. In a heartbeat.
I think the biggest reason to get one is because most HR departments filter resumes by having a degree. Unless you’re applying to a pretty small shop where your resume might get directly to a hiring manager, you get overlooked regardless of qualifications.
Wait, Phil, did you even read the article? This wasn’t “Why not to go to College” but “Why not to go to an ONLINE College”.
Seriously, read the article first before you post about it …
didnt do shit all for me, I didnt great grades in university cause I was one of those drifter type peoples that went from subject to subject hoping to find a calling life. Any time I came close to something, it would end up blowing up in my face in failure. Though Im happy I went through the experience, Im in NO rush to go back to school until I have a definitive idea of what Im doing there.
The thought process on college should be an individual one and should start (at the latest) in the first two years of High School. Not knowing “what you want to do when you grow up” (or, in later life, what you want or need to do to reinvent yourself) can result in tens of thousands of dollars down the drain and loans that seemingly last a lifetime.
* Research job trends for the upcoming years. As in the classic Monty Python sketch, although you may dream of being a lion tamer; an accounting degree is more likely to pay the bills. If you’re up to it, lion taming can be a hobby after you graduate and land a good job.
* If taking the traditional four-year route, knock out as many general studies (a.k.a. bullshit) classes that are required for any degree first. This will give you a semester or two to finalize or change your major if desired without wasting time or money. My opinion is many of these classes have little or no value for non-teaching degrees: Being forced to spend hundreds (if not thousands) on required classes in Phys Ed, History or Shakespeare is the academic equal of forcing a person to buy a set of Monster Cables in order to purchase a television.
* Try to find part-time jobs, volunteer work or internships in your field of study. If gunning for an IT degree, for example, a part time job at a computer store or IT help desk helps you network (no pun intended) for a full-time position after graduation and looks more impressive on your first resume than a job at Applebee’s.
* If on a limited budget, buy only the education you can realistically pay off in the first few years after graduation. Research community colleges; find out how many class credits are likely to transfer to a 4 year college. This may allow you to take the required “Monster Cable” general studies classes at a generic price.
* There is no shame in training for blue-collar jobs. Plumbing or OTR trucking may not be six-figure jobs, but they usually pay a decent salary and have much lower educational expenses.
* Avoid most “on-line” universities and for-profit training firms (ITT Tech, medical assistant and truck driving schools, etc.) like the plague! Community colleges usually offer the same training at a fraction of the cost and, unlike for-profit schools, educational credits may be accepted for an actual degree in IT, Nursing, etc.
I went to a community college for two years to get my Associates Degree in Nursing. My GI Bill covered all of my expenses and I was able to live with my parents for two years, rent free, while I went to school. Thankfully, I graduated at a time when there was still a nationwide nursing shortage. I moved to California and make really good money.
I did just finish my BSN through an online program offered by a true brick and mortar University. A BSN isn’t really necessary for nursing, but I want to go on to advanced practice (MSN) so I had to jump through the hoops.
Unfortunately, most nursing students nowadays are having to wait at least a year to find a job in hospital or anywhere else. The nursing shortage is cyclical, though, and we’ll probably be in a shortage again soonish.
I would definitely do college again. I’m getting my PhD in a natural sciences field right now, and you can’t really expect to do that without at least an undergraduate degree. It helped that I went to a college I was overqualified for, and thus got my entire way paid for. Perhaps part of the complaint that a lot of people here seem to be echoing (mountains of debt) could be avoided by not trying to get into the very very best school possible, instead aiming a little lower and getting some more merit scholarship funding. Especially if a Bachelor’s isn’t your end goal, I don’t think the school you come from matters too much. GPA, GRE (or other test) scores, recommendations, and interviews seem to be the most important factors… and not necessarily in that order.
Seriously? This person went to a mystery “online college” and they’re wondering why they aren’t getting anywhere with that degree? A significant part of the value to a college degree is what it’s a degree in and where it’s from. A creative writing degree from your local state school will probably help you get your foot in the door when you’re looking for a job, but it won’t compare to say an engineering degree from a top tier engineering school. That being said the creative writing degree will probably get you further than any degree from j-random-online-school-no-one-has-ever-heard-of.
Sure some people don’t need college degrees. Heck, some don’t even need high school diplomas, but I don’t think too many folks would argue against someone getting their HS diploma. No amount of formal education is absolutely necessary for everyone but all of it can be very helpful for a lot of people (just judging by what many jobs require nowadays). The trick is to be smart about what you’re buying. Would any of you have sympathy if someone was whining about how they didn’t really research their vehicle options and paid $50k for a Yugo and now they’re having problems because it’s falling apart and keeps breaking down? Or if someone bought a motorcycle and now they were having problems wedding cake business because they couldn’t load the cakes on the bike?
Way too many people seem to take the idea that you need a college degree to mean that you can just goof off and come out with a basket-weaving degree and you’ll be set to land any job you get an inkling to apply for. That’s just dumb. If you are undecided about what you want to do but you have the chance to go to college (e.g. you got some scholarships coming out of HS, or you can go to the local state school as a resident etc…) get a degree in business, or management or something else that you can apply to a future career. I’ve known way too many people who come out with creative writing degrees, or art degrees, or any of a number of random degrees that are really useless if you’re not passionate about the subject. If you’re really into it and you want to go in that direction they can be great degrees, but if you’re just picking them (or even just going to college) to avoid being out in the “real” world for another 4 years that’s just dumb.
BSEE from a public university. Worth every penny.
What my degree did for me?
Got me my first job, then into grad school where I got my master’s degree, which in turn led to my current job, which I am very satisfied with.
And, yes, I went to an expensive private school and will be paying off loans for some time (but at a fantastic interest rate because I consolidated in 2004.
Oh, I also met my wife at college, so there is that. And a lot of my (still) close friends).
So yea, I’d do it over again.
I’ve been in many situations where employers was to see my Computer Science degree. I’ve also been offered a job over over college grads because while others were earning their degrees, I was learning on the job, getting my employer to pay for my certifications, and learning real world experiences you don’t learn behind a school desk or in a book. I have no debt to pay off while earning more than most my age.
I really can’t complain, and I don’t regret not getting my degree.
Someone in my degree field (journalism/communications) suggested we file a class action suit against all the counselors and college instructors who promised us it was a great field with bountiful job opportunities.
I graduated from a Top 25 college and a Top 10 MBA program, and it cost me $200,000. Since it’s a business degree and I’m in a business field, the $200,000 was well worth the money. In fact, I paid off my $100,000 in student loans in 4 years.
I guess you have to decide that if you end up paying for a degree, you need to enter a career field which will allow you to make more money than not going to college.
I spent 4 years on as an undergraduate and 1 year working towards a Master’s degree (M.Ed. that I didn’t finish), and it was definitely worth it. I don’t use the stuff I learned in my graduate program anymore, but it helped me get my first job, and my Bachelor’s degree has definitely helped me earn more than I would have otherwise working in IT.
If I had to do it over again, though, rather than starting the M.Ed., I probably would have gone for a Master’s in Computer Science. But then again, if I did that, I may not have had the opportunity to work in the UK and now in Norway, so there’s something to be said about not regretting the choices I made.
I went to private schools and took out less than $5000 in loans thanks to scholarships, internships, and help from my parents. I have about $1200 left to pay off. I used to have credit card debt – most of it from the first few years after college – but that’s been paid off for over a year now.
Depends entirely on what you study and why. It probably also helps to not live in the US where you’re paying ridiculous sums for tuition. My tuition per year works out to be around $3000 less than the US average. I’m graduating (Directly into a job, no less) with a minor $8000 debt.
I went to music school right out of high school and ended up not getting anywhere. Then I went back later and graduated cum laude in 2005 with a BS and an AS. I’m answering the phone for a living. I tried going to grad school, but left when I realized I don’t want to teach high school and can’t afford the time and money to get a PhD.
I just redid my resume into a skills one. It’s full of things that are pretty transferable, but none of them are practical except for working in an office. And none of them, except writing, are anything I did in college. My job experience even with college is no better than if I’d stayed out of it. But with things the way they are, having the degree looks better on my resume than not having it. So I’m glad I went, even though going at night meant I met no one and have no contacts other than the alumni association.
Actually, I’m pretty well screwed. Please kill me now.
Without a college degree, I would not have been able to emigrate to Japan.
As a programmer, you pretty much need a degree just to be taken seriously. I probably could have done without a Master’s degree, but it does add a bit more shine on the resume and a bit more money to the starting salary.
It’s not COLLEGE that is not worth it. It is the degree. Any degree with an A at the end is pretty much useless. History, Arts, Psychology, Sociology, English, Speech, Criminal Justice, etc.. All degrees that you have a LOT of competition in. Then you have to go for more advances degrees, Masters, Doctorates, and competition for those jobs is fierce.
Science degrees are harder to earn and meaning there is less competition for those jobs, thus they pay off in the long run.
It depends on what you want to do. My first degree was in Computer Technology. Unfortunately, I graduated just before the tech market crash so I had a hard time finding a job that paid decently since tons of others with my same degree plus more experience were out of work too. At my most recent job they offer tuition reimbursement so I went back for an Engineering degree (just one more semester) and I think I have learned WAY more going back while working than going just after college. I can see how the stuff I learn works in a job. Fields like Engineering require a degree if you are just starting out. Older workers who’ve been in the field forever can get away with on-the-job experience but you can’t get into a place without having a degree now.
Yes, I would do it all over again. I should probably have picked a state school over a private one, but my school got me the job I have now. Name recognition does count for some things. If I had never gone to college I would still be living in the same town I grew up with and never have gotten the opportunities that I now have. College is worth it, if only to broaden your horizons and see what else is possible.