College isn&#x27;t the end-all, but the education helps, even if it&#x27;s not purely technical or vocational.  Spending a few years just learning how to think about various problems, discipline to study instead of drink (or if you&#x27;re me, you didn&#x27;t do well with this), etc.<p>I do think that we over-emphasize the school itself.  What I mean by that, at least in my opinion, is that if it&#x27;s not an Ivy and not the top school in the field that you are 150% sure you will absolutely do (and won&#x27;t change majors 3x like I did), then take the reasonably priced state option.<p>Time has flown and I recently realized I&#x27;m 12 years out of college.  My education was ~10k a year at a public school - a decent one, but not even the best one in the state.  I would not be materially farther ahead in life if I&#x27;d spent 30k a year at UVA or 50k at Georgetown.  And I&#x27;m not paying off undergraduate debt right now.  I am paying off grad (law school) debt, but that&#x27;s another story - I was a night student and by the time I graduated it didn&#x27;t make sense to restart my career in law when I was pretty well along in my industry.  And the mistake I made was not going to the cheaper, public state school (and I didn&#x27;t attend an Ivy).<p>By all means, get your education, but control the costs.  To an 18 year old graduating high school it might sound like a no brainer to spend 50k at the &quot;good&quot; private school over the state option, but the reality is, there are few circumstances where that&#x27;s true.  I did it the right way once, and the wrong way once, so just my two cents.