My opinion is that college for most folks is a total waste of time. This is based off of my experience in college. My degree would be worth much more to me if the college had focused more of my required classes on my degree itself instead of forcing me to take classes such as Anthropology. Easily half of my classes had nothing to do with my degree in an effort to make me a "well-rounded individual". What a load of crap. I wasn't there to learn about the world, what I think of it and how that makes me feel. I was quite able to do that on my own thank you very much. I was there to learn skills to get a job in my field. Which I graduated with a BA in Graphic Design and have done quite well for myself. But most of the skills I use today for my job in my field were pretty much self-taught. I did minor in computer science and have built on those skills to be a designer that knows his way inside and out of a computer. So I've worked on computer games, Playstation2 games, 3D software and the like.
My current job? Did I get it because of my degree? Not really. "You have a degree? That's nice. What have you done since?" I get jobs now based off of my accomplishments SINCE college, not because of my degree. I could have possibly just entered the work force with some work examples and would have been ahead of the game. I have several friends that went this route and never looked back. In fact, one of them is sitting right next to me here at work, he has no degree and has almost the same job I do. After all, design is not rocket science although you need the artistic talent to keep a job. Some people try that route because they think it's easy but they can't find or keep a job because they do not have the talent for it. Hence the large number of art students that don't work. College should be reserved for people who wish to pursue teaching (to teach in their field instead of the stupid all encompassing education degree) or industries that require sciences and math. Everything else could be learned at a trade school level and be better off then traditional college.
I have a newborn daughter and our plans for her after years of home schooling is to suggest to her to pick a career and then pick the path that will get her there the quickest with the most useful skills without the additional crap that comes from a traditional college. And without the added extra wasted expenses.
This is a big pet peeve of mine. Since most people go to college to learn a profession, colleges should be more like vocational schools. If plumbing students don't have to take electives in literature, why should a physics student? You should just take exactly what you need. I'll bet you could whittle down a lot of 4 year programs to 2 or 3 and save tons of money.