Perhaps we're talking past each other here. You'll notice from my example that I and my friends all went to college. I'm not advocating against going to college

Perhaps we're talking past each other here. You'll notice from my example that I and my friends all went to college. I'm not advocating against going to college. What I'm saying is there are a lot of options out there and the financial side should weigh in your decisions. I was getting a writing degree and decided that shooting for a big expensive school was probably a stupid idea. So I picked a far cheaper option, which allowed me to pay as I went, and graduate with ~$10k in loans after I finished.