College Is A Bad Idea

According to the relevant data, going to college is a bad idea for most people. The majority of high school freshmen who go on to start college do not make it to the second year at university. Graduation rates are simply abysmal. The "on time" graduation rate for 4, 5, and even 6 year measurements are not good. Even when one looks at the statistics on Associate's degrees, the figures are even worse with graduation rates a bottom-dwelling 5%. Similar stats are found even for graduate school programs when one looks at Master's degrees and Ph.D's. Ph.D programs sometimes expect 5 to 7 years to complete, however the real world data shows that the average is closer to an entire decade. Once completed, university degree holders often end up unemployed or underemployed. Experts find that high-end achievers will do so whether or not they attend university, with one prominent expert stating that such people could be locked in a closet for the 4 years of college and still end up doing well in life later.
Ultimately, the argument I make is that unless one has always dreamed of attending university or there is a specific job field into which one plans to go, don't bother with college. Certain professions, to be sure, require a university degree and if that is the case for you then by all means go, but otherwise you are highly unlikely to "find yourself" in college. What is statistically much more likely is that you will saddled with massive amounts of student loan debt with the individual average being around $37,000 dollars and the U.S. total student loan debt being around $1.48 trillion dollars as of 2018.

Sources Cited:

Most College Students Don't Earn a Degree in 4 Years - https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/education/most-college-students-dont-earn-degree-in-4-years-study-finds.html
The American Council on Education - http://www.acenet.edu/Pages/default.aspx
College Graduation Rates: Behind the Numbers - http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Documents/College-Grad..