Is College really worth it?

So lately there's been lots of buzz going around about the massive student debt crisis. I hear that the debt is well over 1 trillion dollars. That's quite outrageous. Many of us were told at a young age that if we go to college and get a degree, we'll land ourselves a nice job and get to live comfortably. Thing is, that was the case for the baby boomers. It was a vastly different time and world back when all of our parents were getting out of high school. Back in those years you can pay for college with just a summer job, and college degrees were actually worth more back then seeing that not too many people had them. Since college has become such a hot commodity the price for has sky rocketed and people were still going to college in spite of the soaring prices. Nowadays many college students are in debt, forever trapped with a debt that will only continue to grow and won't go away even if you go bankrupt or die(if you die the debt will go to people of your family) Add to it that many of these degrees are generally useless, nowadays it's more about entrepreneurship that will get your foot in the door as opposed to being someone with a degree. Not being able to pay off your debts plus not finding work for the major you applied for leaves me wondering, is college really worth it? If it's not then how come people continuously enroll if they see what it's doing to many people? here's some videos about the student debt crisis and why so many people are advocating for communism... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2OWv6ro6uw&t=1604s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB676Rnhcw0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8je64jy5Nds&t=238s Some of the videos are quite long so grab a snack and coffee if you're going to watch. I said my piece what are thoughts on all of this?

All depends on your degree. If you're going to law or medical school, you'd better believe it's worth it. But if you're going for something as inapplicable to the real world such as "gender studies", "ethnic studies" or even something like Philosophy or Psychology, absolutely not. I went to college, I freelance in my field at the most, but luckily I don't have student loans. The only debt I'm in is my car loan which is chump change compared to what other people my age are paying in student loans.

My thoughts exactly @Esoteric Iconoclast. If it is a highly specialized or academic field, then yea, college. I got pretty much pushed into the whole college life thing and ended up with degrees that I can barely even utilize. To be perfectly frank, it was not worth the debt and stress. If it is something you can learn on your own you're much better off focusing all your energy and attention on that rather than trudging through auxiliary classes that you'll never use again.

It does largely matter on the degree. It's why I opted for Vo-tech. Best lesson I learned there being away from family for the first time was how to be my own person.

Great replies, it is true that it largely depends on your choice of study. If you're interested in computer programming for instance, you can actually learn that in your own home with many video tutorials and E Books so college isn't necessary. I'm not sure if you guys are fimiliar with the Youtuber Yandere Dev and his game Yandere Simulator, he didn't go to college or anything of the sort, he learned programming through self teaching and now he's making a wildly successful game and he has no degree of any kind under his belt. So if you're interested in programming,video game design etc, then you can teach yourself. But when it comes to stuff like say accounting and the medical field then you have to go to college. You wouldn't want an untrained/uncertified person handling your health or finances would you? Case in point I see college can surely be worth it depending on what you're studying. But what can be done about the student loan crisis? What can we do to convince people that college isn't the only route? I imagine in years down the road the college debt bubble will burst like the housing market and that can have severe consequences.

only if you know exactly what field or jobs you want to do and as long as you didnt cheat thru your last 2 years of high school. Otherwise No, its a waste of time and money and youll likely drop out.

tl;dr - yes if you make connections and know what you are doing with it. The UK equivalent University is absolutely worth it (business management w/ marketing), but things aren't handed to your for free you have to work for it. I've already been approached by multiple companies wanting to hire me after I finish. One company has offered me a £40k starting salary and audi A6 after graduating all because I made connections. I'm sure the US is similar if you go out and make contacts, as VP of my universities senate I arrange events for companies to talk to students to get people better connected. But maybe that is my uni specific since I can do a lot more as VP of the senate.

If it's something like medicine,engineering or law then it's definitely worth it, otherwise it might be better to find a mentor and self study. Getting a degree doesn't guarantee you a job.