[medaille]

Should you not go to College to train and develop your mind and to prepare yourself for the challenge that life has to offer...???

Sure why not, if it's a conscious decision and you weighed the pros and cons. Most people, however, aren't choosing to go to college to train and develop their mind or to prepare themselves for what life offers.

Could we have your definition of “real” life…???

I would define "real life" in this context as such:

Real life is the working world, where everybody stops being sheltered materially from the consequences of your actions. College for most people isn't "real life", because a lot of the pressures are removed. You don't HAVE to work for a living, you just have to work for beer money. Parents pay for the rest or its put on loans. The skills needed for college are completely different than what you need for "real life." College tests your ability to write essays or take tests. "Real life" tests your ability to provide for yourself, to hold down a job and make headway in your career. You can get straight c's and live with the exact same standard of living as people who get straight a's while you are in college. Most people will say something along the following lines, "You'll learn more from being on the job for a month than you will in all the time you spend in school." I think that's very telling and very accurate.

For people that aren't making conscious decisions, college can be a time where you gain tremendous debt, but aren't receiving enough benefit to offset that debt (ie the return on investment was too low)

If you don’t believe it… read biographies of people who have succeeded… of course you’ll find the story of a few genius who dropped off of College and today are billionaires… but the very vast majority of successes are College/University graduates…

That's improper logic.

I could just as equally say that "the vast majority of successes are from people that were born." There is a correlation between the two, but its not a distinguishing factor that causes success. Society IS set up in such a manner that rewards going through school. Higher paying jobs require having the piece of paper that says you're qualified for the job regardless of whether or not you are actually well suited for the job. I would say a stronger correlation would be whether or not you came from a wealthy family or at least a family who understands the mindset of being "successful."

A better question than "who is successful in society's eyes" is "who is successful at life?" Being successful at life has nothing to do with college and has everything to do with knowing what you want and then going out and getting it.

In your case, I would think it would be more accurate to say that you are successful (read happy) because you knew what you wanted and then got it. This country is filled with people who are college graduates who aren't happy.