In RE to the OP;
It just depends on who you are and where you want to go. I will say, I have met very few college grads who got a ride from their parents or took out giant loans that are very well educated. Really, to be blunt -- the kids that have been coming out of college for about the last decade have been on a real hard and steady decline, in terms of quality of education and just quality of human beings.
There are some fields you cannot enter without a college education. For example, in the state of Arkansas -- you can no longer take the Bar Exam without meeting degree requirements from an Arkansas Bar Association. Which is a relatively recent change. In times past, one could simply take the Bar Exam. These accredited law schools I am sure require some type of degree for admittance.
Hurdles and red tape, excuses to extort and exclude... I assure you I've met many attorneys that couldn't change the oil in their own car to save their own lives.
Nonetheless, these hurdles do exist. Very similar things can be said for medical practices, teaching, engineering, basically any regulated industry.
So there's a good reason for college if you have aspirations to enter one of these fields.
If your reason for attaining a degree is to make more money -- better make that degree choice wisely. I dated a girl once, ohh 20 years back, who had a degree in microbiology. She worked at a coffee shop. That's a great stepping stone into medical school, vet school, dental, nursing, lots of other careers -- but by itself... still a good degree but it's just not as broadly sought after. These days that type of situation is very common, if not prolific.
I know I'm getting long here so I'll try and be brief; when my son was young I tried to impart a very important lesson. I offered to pay him to clean the attic. He immediately wanted me to make decisions for him. I explained to him that the most important skill you need to develop is decision making. You have to be prepared to be wrong and, be ok with it, and defend it if you disagree. And I challenged him on choices he made.
Your child needs to be educated on, and experience, what their career options are. It's not supposed to be easy, fun, or static.
My son, now 19, first chose to go get ASE certified. His goal was to get certified, get a job, learn the trade and start an off-road/hot-rod shop. By the time he was done he'd decided instead he wanted to weld. So he went and got some training in that -- he never did get to take his final certification tests because of COVID... but he does have a job right now and is pulling $60k a year.
I have two employees that have masters in engineering / technology that don't make much more than that -- and I could easily outsource their jobs.
Me, I would have never suggested welding school for him. Nor would I have thought he'd turn wrenches. When he was growing up I gave him plenty of opportunity to be involved in both and until he was 16 he had interest in neither. That was actually a major turning point, closing this out, again apologies for length -- I know people hate novels; at 16 he had an option to have all A's and I'd pay for his car, gas, and some spending money. He didn't want that, instead he chose to work. So he did. My brother had a Jeep, it'd been sitting long enough that all the tires had rotted flat and the engine had somehow gotten water in it.
My brother sold him that Jeep for $600. Long story short, a few months, a lot of hard work, and damn lot of learning later he drove the Jeep home. I didn't turn a wrench on that Jeep, and to this day have not. He covets that piece of shit like more than life itself, and rightly so -- he earned it through sweat and blood.
Anyway, that's just my view on it. I'm not sure it's a view more than it is to say the child should be educated and make their own choice. As a parent, I see myself much as a shooter. I can aim the rifle but I cannot control the bullet.
On a different but partly related subject, I am also careful to avoid crapping on someone else's idea or dream. Many years back, back in the 90's, my Dad had an idea; he wanted to setup DVD vending machines. I destroyed the idea, tore it apart. Credit cards weren't prolific then, people paid with cash, you'd have disks scratched and ruined, so many reasons. So, he abandoned the idea. A few years later Red Box was everywhere and I felt like a complete piece of shit. To this day I regret stealing that from him. This is related only in that I was very careful not to shit on my sons dream. I would never have agreed with him if he told me he'd be 19 and making $60k, good vacation, good health, dental, 401k, essentially a solid career.
So there's my whole take, I guess.
