New to the forum, but have been trolling for a while and thought I would pipe up on this topic. I think College has its place, as do many other avenues for learning. Personally, I never went to college. I was a natural born geek with an affinity for computers. As such, I have not made less than a 6-figure salary in 9 years (note: i'm 35). Over the years I have taught myself advanced programming and Data Management and have done work for some major companies in the IT and Data Architecture practices. (Kraft, P&G, etc.). Interestingly, one of the biggest challenges is training "new" software developers that have a degree in Computer Sciences and believe they know the first thing about practical software development (in most cases, they don't and need to be trained). At this point in my carreer, nobody bothers asking for a degree, as I have more than sufficient work history and recommendations from previous employers. As far as College, I think most of the Medical professions, hard sciences (quantum physics, etc.), and some more esoteric profressions make sense. As someone pointed out, getting a $50,000 debt wracked up and unable to pay it back because you can't get a job in your trained field is kinda a waste... Nowadays we live in the information age...80%+ of what most people would want to learn can be done via the internet and libraries. There are still some classic roles, but the majority of knowlege can be gained through alternate institutions today whereas 40 years ago, your choices were pretty much "go to college" or "operate drillpress".
