> I'll tell you what I've learned from friends going to college: It's a 4 year party that your parents pay for.

Right, and you can say this from your vast experience on the matter. Let me tell you something, there's a world of difference between college's outward image, as portrayed by the movies and a casual drive down the frat row of a campus on Friday night. College is not easy -- it's a very difficult challenge, where, at times, you don't have time to do anything *but* school work. But it's not insurmountable, and it's incalculably rewarding, not just in material senses but by the intrinsic joys of looking upon the world in with an educated mind.

I won't tell you everyone will get practical use out of college. There are some jobs you can do and enjoy without it. But the jobs people tend to want to pursue don't tend to be the ones you don't need a college education for. Even so, a college education will get you higher pay and faster promotions in the same exact job.

You mentioned you've done some things college students haven't, then named some. You're probably right -- you've done more than *some* have, but that implies incorrectly that college students don't have those types of opportunities. Every college worth its salt runs its own magazines and a radio station and provides the opportunities for students to work on them. Take a filmmaking class, and you'll have access to filmmaking equipment a lot higher tech than what an individual would be able to afford without major sponsorship. No, you don't have to go to college to do these things, as you've clearly illustrated, but you can do them without reinventing the wheel.

I'm a firm believer that although not everyone may use a college education in a practical sense (i.e., in ways other than its intrinsic value, which is perhaps greater anyway), everyone should go if only for the fact that you can still do everything you could otherwise, plus a hundredfold other things that tend to be more desirable. Without college, you won't have the choice to do things you may not even decide you want to do for several years.

I realize this post is the last thing you want to hear right now, because it seems you're determined to ignore the people who know these things from actual experience, but you brought it up, and I had to say something, because there are few things I believe in more.