I shoulda dropped out and gone to a trade-school, then. Hell, I still got time. Lock-smithing, here I come.The further point, of course, is for chrissakes study something else. Study something that can't be self-taught efficiently, like biochem or accounting. Suck it up. Read Hellman and Lacan and Foucault on your own time. I have never encountered a good argument against this.
I only just noticed this post. Isn't the value of college education in the tacit knowledge gathered? Education is much more than just information passing, even when it is something you can teach yourself. Programming, for example, can be self-taught better than ever. I've spent quite some free time learning Python. But taking a programming course greatly improved my skill and taught me the tacit knowledge I don't think I could've developed on my own to the same degree.
Really trade-schools get a lot of shit, but it's one of those things where you're never gonna get screwed career-wise (I'd assume, I'm not even in the workforce yet, so). You've got lots of options, on average make 42,000 to the 4 year degree holder's 45,000, costs less to get said degree, and it works for the people who just don't like academia, or enjoy working with their hands more. Lot of stigma against them, though.