Take it from a criminal justice major who ended up going into student loan debt because I felt like I just downright “needed” to get it from a university. NOTE, I’m not saying don’t go to college, I’m saying unless you are majoring in one of the fields I named, you’d be better off enrolling at a JUCO or Community College. Now if you have a scholarship then that’s a different story. I was originally in a community college but ended up transferring because that school only offered associate degrees (my other excuse for leaving lol). College as a whole is way too fucking expensive to begin with but I feel as though it would be more worth it if you were in the majors I mentioned. I do realize that there are many graduates who have majored in other fields and feel content and that’s great.
I graduated from an elite university in my country within the STEM field, being the second best in the year or so. I can’t find a job because I never networked or did internships. I studied for the exams (which was easy) and otherwise got drunk with students and people from absolutely not my field. It feels like I wasted 6 years of my life.
People, for real, network. No one cares for your grades once you look for a job. They care whether you have experience, and you get both experience and the chance to talk about it when you network.