Is college a waste?

It sounds to me like this guy just couldn't hack it.

Look, nobody was more lost, confused and discouraged in college than me. There I was, a high school honor student who never had to exert myself academically (except for AP English, which required actual brain cells) facing a full load of brain cell-required classes.

Even so, the academics weren't what ruined me. It was the real world, the individual freedom I had in college that I'd never had before. I'd always been part of something. I had a safety net. People to keep tabs on me and consequences for my actions. All of that went away when I went to college, and I went a little nuts. Having freedom when you've never had it before can be a dangerous thing.

When I dropped out after 2 years, it was because I was completely disoriented and was only wasting my time and my parents' money trying to figure it out. I needed to take a step back, focus and maybe try again. It took 2 years for me to go back. In those 2 years I worked my minimum wage jobs and did whatever else I wanted. And you know what? It felt empty.

When I went back, I eased in, starting part-time. Then I got involved in different organizations that not only gave me something of a support system, but also experience outside of the classroom. I realized I could learn from every situation I was in, and suddenly my life seemed to calm down and start making a little sense.

I get this guy's theory: No, a classroom education isn't going to provide all the knowledge a person needs to make it in the real world. But the academic side (especially for us liberal arts majors) is the very least of what we take away from the college experience. It's meeting and learning how to communication with different types of people. It's learning how to absorb information and analyze it on our own. It's having experts and research materials within arm's reach for a brief time, which will never come again (unless we go to grad school, which I have considered.) It's having opportunities to try things we'd never tried before without major consequences if we fail. And that's because even if we fail, we learn something.

A degree doesn't just represent academic achievement. It represents eagerness, willingness, readiness and most of all perseverance. That is what college is all about.