> I'm unconvinced that a college education is actually even that useful.
I can't talk for every majors but at least for STEM, you need to study hard for years to acquire solid foundations.
I don't see how you can gather all the required knowledge by yourself.
I don't know in the US, but during the 5 years it took me to graduate, I usually had about 30-40 hours of classes a week, plus a lot of personal work (especially in maths), and that for 5 years.
If you want to do that by yourself, you need to:
- decide what you need to learn, and find what are the best resources to learn it
- keep motivated for many years, without feedback that you're on the right track
- convince your future employer that you have skills
We should keep learning all life long, but I don't think anything can replace a formal education. It's one thing to learn things on the side when you need them. But it's much harder to tackle heavy foundational topics without supervision.
I went to school in the US and my experience is identical to yours. During the school year I'd spend much more than 40 hours a week on schoolwork, I recall taking a software engineering course where my team and I would meet on both Saturday and Sunday for 10ish hours each day for a couple months to get our project done.
I also couldn't have done that myself because I was only able to do it with access to student loans, as I had to (at the minimum) eat and have somewhere warm to sleep, which I certainly had no money for, so I had to take out loans for food and rent.
They have these devices called books, and work experience. I think the main benefit is the discipline of others having expectations, especially when young.
I can't talk for every majors but at least for STEM, you need to study hard for years to acquire solid foundations. I don't see how you can gather all the required knowledge by yourself.