Deciding whether or not to go to college is a major decision that people have to make in life. But, is it prudent for most people to go to college? I think we first have to explore the reasons for why most people choose to go to college. I think there are 4 major camps of reason for wanting to go to college:

1. Finance motivated: some people believe that going to college would put them in a better financial situation in the long term.

2. “Dream job” motivated: some people believe that going to college would allow them to obtain a job which would be preferable to any job you might obtain without a college degree

3. Relationship motivated: some people go to college in hopes of meeting their future spouse or making lots of friends that they couldn’t make in the workforce. Sometimes people wish to go to college simply because they want to party and have fun.

4. Education motivated: some people go to college to learn new knowledge and obtain an education. I didn’t include this category in the original OP but several people on this thread have stated it as a reason for why it might be a good idea to go to college.

I think there might be acceptable alternatives for all 4 motivations:

1. When considered the cost of going to college, one must not only consider the cost of tuition but also the cost of the lost income due to the inability to work full time and having to focus on school work. In addition, when calculating how much extra income you can expect after graduating from college, one must consider that a big reason why college graduates tend to earn more money than high school graduates is due to the fact that the average college graduate has a higher IQ and is probably more hardworking. It’s not clear how beneficial a degree is to increasing income once you adjust for those variables. An alternative strategy to improving your financial situation in the future is to live with your parents and work full time for about 5 years. Assuming that you’re saving most of your money, you should have enough money to buy a house without a mortgage in 5 years. Your expenses should go downhill once you own a house. Of course, you could also offer to pay a very cheap rent to your parents if they are not ok with you living with them for free. Would this strategy work better than going to college to insure a financially secure future?

2. Instead of trying to obtain a supposedly enjoyable job with a college degree, it might be a better strategy to save money and live modestly. Then, you can either retire early or work a part time job which might not quite be as enjoyable as your dream job but tolerable nonetheless. I think working a part time job is probably better since you don’t want to be completely unaccustomed to working in case you are forced to do so again. Either way, I think increasing your leisure time might be better because it seems like there is no guarantee that you will enjoy your “dream job”. Sometimes these dream jobs can prove to be a disappointment in reality so we have to be careful not to over-romanticize those jobs. It might be more beneficial to have more time to do hobbies which correspond to these jobs. For example, instead of trying to become a philosophy teacher, it might be better to simply do philosophy for fun. If you have lots of free time, then you can spend it on meaningful hobbies which you enjoy. Of course, we should also remember that there’s no guarantee that you will succeed in obtaining a job that you really like. Is acquiring more leisure time more beneficial than trying to acquire an enjoyable job which doesn’t pay very well with a college degree?

3. It’s not clear to me why people would go to college to meet people. Are colleges better places to meet people than anywhere else? Could you not meet college people without going to college?

4. It might be better for someone to educate themselves by reading books and watching YouTube lecture series from actual elite universities. The great thing about self-education is that you get to choose what you would like to learn about. This allows you to be specialized in topics which may not even be taught in universities. For example, I spent a lot of time studying prudential value theory. It would be really rare for me to find a university course specifically on prudential value theory but there is a decent literature written on the topic online. Could self-education be better or comparable to university education?