I agree with the latter half of your comment. Just to clarify and no intentions of "hey look at me" here but I came from divorced parents, mom working odd jobs cleaning houses and part time secretary and a car washing dad. Nowhere close to medium or high income in terms of a support system. That said I think living in the real world since 17 has allowed me to learn different types and arguable more important life skills than you learn in college. Everyone comes out of college thinking they deserve something for memorizing text books and going to class for 4 years. Again, if you are not going to college for something relevant that's going to get you a relatively high paying job right away you could have spent that time better elsewhere. That piece of paper is becoming more and more meaningless as time goes by. Lot's of employers are actually get rid of requirements to have a degree and allowing equivalent experience to take that place, a notable one that comes to mind is Ernst & Young.