Depends on how lucky you are one way or another. Be thankful you found a good job. Many people are never able to land one.

I guess it depends on your country. Here in Brazil you either:

- Go to public university: they are by far the best in quality and normally figure in the top 800 rank of best colleges in the world. They are free. Competition is tougher but there are a lot of them.

- Go to a private university: the quality of teaching varies a bit, going from cheap, low quality institutions to the better and a bit more expensive. Anyway, the monthly fee ranges from 300 to 1200 reais in most cases (some like PUC can co as far as 3000). 1 US$ = R$ 3.1. You can also get your course for free through government programs such as PROUNI, I would say that easily between 25% to 50% of people on private universities are doing this.

In Brazil it is generally well worth it. With just high school education, you won't get an well paid job here. Being an engineer, medic or lawyer will give you a substantial upgrade. It's 2.7 times more on average, but that considers low paying superior level jobs such as primary teachers.

Of course, a college degree isn't worth if you plan to do a low paying bachelor. At least here, history, math and basically any course in humans will pay basically the same as having high school education only, so don't expect to get much more than R$ 2000 monthly. An engineer (or any computing professional) starts easily at 5K and can go as far as 10 to 15K. Medicine and law can pay more than 10K too and that's a really great salary here that will give you a comfortable life even in high-cost cities such as Rio and São Paulo.

A good option for high-school educated people here is to get a public job, that can pay even 6K. But mind that with a college education a public job can pay 10 to 20K. Public jobs also have increased stability. You can't be fired unless you do a really, and I mean really, terrible shit.

Edit: if you plan to be a techaer here, you can get a good pay. While up to high school teaching pays miserable salaries, university teachers with a PhD on a public college start with 9K and sometimes teach less than 20 hours per week. Also, as public jobs, they can't be fired.

I think it all really depends on what you want to be/do in life.

I'm referring to the university of minnesota.

I'll have to agree with the "It Depends" people. I'm sure it'll also depend on where you're at. In the United States at least, I'm feeling like the college thing needs a crash and burn so that the system can be reset so to speak.

From what I understand, a college degree now is like having graduated high school many years ago. It feels like too many people are pushed towards college whether or not they can afford it or succeed in it. Next, students are pushed towards getting student aid, such as federal student loans, and they rack up debt in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. Then, schools gunning for the sweet student loan dollars are doing everything they can do to build out/rebuild their campuses to try and attract more students and that drives up the cost more. Once you're out, you may find that it's tough to get a job in your field and you have to do something else. Finally, the for-profit school situation is makes it even worse with how badly they screw the system over, loading students with debt and running off with the federal student loan dollars. ITT was finally closed down, so I guess that's a start.

Now, that is more of my top level view on how college is going, I'm sure we could go much more in-depth than that. Either way, obviously everybody's mileage will vary.

The Game of Life is a scarily accurate board game.

If you end up with a well-paying job, that you needed a qualification for, then the degree was worth it.

If you end up in a minimum wage job, only you're now 4 years older and with a large debt to somehow repay, then college wasn't worth it.

Depends on what you want to do with your life, obviously.

I have a Master's, I love my job and make over six figures in US. I hire people right out college with their Bachelor's and offer six figure salaries.

Yes, college is most definitely worth it if you don't waste your time and don't act like your still in highschool.

I have a degree in Astrophysics, a HDIP in Electronic physics and a masters in atomic physics. No it isn't worth it. I am a senior engineer in a fortune 500 company but earn less than my friends who did a 3 year degree in business.

Any jobs for an over educated Irish man?