This is a question that has been plaguing my mind for quite some time. Currently, I have been able to get good paying jobs without going to college thanks to my experience and some IT certifications. However, I noticed for some careers that college is a good idea especially those with high federal government regulations.  US college is expensive and a traditional college takes about four years to complete. What is everyone thoughts on this?

Only if you get a good paying job and not a mountain of debt.

True, some college degrees are trash and the government shouldn't give out loans for them.

No one can really answer that question but yourself. If what you want to do in life requires a degree, than sure it's worth it. If what you want isn't offered by society, such as in my case, then no it's a waste of time and money. You sound like you're making good money, but if what you're doing to make that money isn't what you really want to do, then I'd say it's worth it even if you don't need a higher income. No point to life if you aren't doing what you enjoy.

Go to a public, in-state university. Cheaper than out of state and private schools.

I'm actually completing some college courses now for over a year online. I'm doing it for job security reasons right now, but I am not sure if the money and time I am putting in will make it worth it at the end. Good news it is relatively cheap compared to most universities.

Plus, cut back on expenses. When I went, I selected the 13 a week meal plan and not the more expensive 19 one. I got 2 meals a day during the week, and 3 for the weekend. On one of those weekend days I got one meal. Was no big deal.

I'm looking into getting a software developer degree at WGU. The biggest reason is because it's cheap and will help me get pass HR. I felt like I got denied a chance at a company I really wanted to work for just because I lack of a college degree. It sucks too because it seems they were interested in me until they found out I didn't have a degree. This happened a couple years ago. Also, it will help with uncertainty in the job market.

The point of collage that I found is to give you an edge compared to other people that are trying to get the same jobs. It's not a guarantee that you will get a high paying job straight out of collage unless you have connections. The point of getting degrees and certificates is that it allows the employer to get an understanding of what the person they are hiring might know as they can easily go to the website of the degree and see the course list. But if you don't have that, then the employer would need to assume so the alternative is experience which is hard to get when you are just starting out.

So it really depends. I would say that compared to when I had no working experience vs me getting my Bachelors, I had significantly more interviews when I got my Bachelors. That never meant that I got the job even post interview however as those that had more experience than me obviously got the job. But I found that it is one less obstacle that I had to go through. But if you are not in a good financial situation and you can't afford to go to collage, then the power of the internet might be a lot more use to you as you can find how to do almost anything these days.

Yes, I have a big software portfolio to show them through github. My certs are more tailored to general IT such as Comptia a+, ITIL, MS certificate for Database and Networking. However, a lot of companies seem to like them going by previous experience because I will have more of an idea on what is going on around me.