My daughter just graduated HS last year. I watched so many of her friends head off to big 4 year schools having no idea what they want to do in life. They all just went because....."it's the next thing you're supposed to do, right?" I listened to everyone kind of gloat about where their son or daughter was headed off too, more than half of them had no college savings for it. I told my kid, it's not about where you start, it's about where you finish and what you want to do in life. If you have no idea what you want to do, that is fine with me. I don't expect you to have it figured out yet. It's a big decision.....take your time..... there's no rush. So I enrolled her in a local community college with the goal of an Associate of Science until she can figure out what she wants to do. I also loved putting the entire 1st semester on my Capital One card, getting double miles, and paying it off the next Month. So she lives at home, comes and goes how she wants, has a full time job as a waitress and is taking 15 hours at the CC. I also made her pay for all her books with her money, just so she has a little buy in on her schooling. After the 2 years I told her she can pick a school and finish her degree where ever she wants.
I tried college and it wasn't for me. Joined the Navy, learned how to operate a Nuclear Reactor and got out. What I do now has nothing to do with Nuclear Power, but I do pretty well. The Navy taught me life lessons and created a good foundation to build off of. I became financially stable in the Navy, met my wife, paid off our first car and joined the work force with zero debt. So I am a big fan of joining the military as a next step to life after high school. I tried to talk my daughters into joining but they aren't interested, and that's fine. Now my younger daughter is a whole different story. She already has a path in mind and knows what she wants.