EDIT: Sorry, this rambled more than I thought. You can skip to the end to get the points I'm trying to make lol.
As others have mentioned, sometimes college is valuable even if you aren't using your degree. It's also worth mentioning that you never know what connections you make during those years could end up being pivotal, so it's important to be friendly and respectful to everyone.
During my freshman orientation, one of the speakers said that about 50% of college students change their majors. I was set on accounting and remember hearing that statistic and thinking, "What a bunch of idiots, how do you still not know what you want to do?" A year and a half later, I changed my major. I was set on accounting because my dad was a CPA and I took a college prep accounting class in high school and did well in it. That "college prep" class really only prepared me for the first week or so of the actual college class. After that, the material got pretty dry. I enjoyed working with numbers but it involved less math than I expected and felt more like a law class. I also knew my grades probably weren't good enough to get into the business school, so I switched to sport management. I wanted to work in pro hockey and do marketing. My senior year I decided I didn't want a corporate job and would rather deal with regular everyday people, and set my sights on running a local ice rink someday.
One of my classes, advanced sport marketing, basically had one assignment--we each spent the semester working on a business plan. Throughout college, I worked at a small hockey equipment shop at an ice rink. I was working on this business plan while at work one night, and one of the managers from the rink came in to pick up something he ordered from us. He asked what I was working on and I told him I was writing a business plan for a rink and I want to run a rink someday. He said that was his goal too, so we stayed in touch and I met with him a few times to gain valuable insight to use in my business plan. A few months later, he was hired at a different ice rink and was tasked with putting together a new operations staff. He hired me as soon as I finished college, but all they could give me was a part-time position. I didn't need a degree for this job, but it showed them that I was serious about making a career out of this. I remained part-time for a few years, but during that time, he taught me how to do pretty much everything there, and gradually gave me more administrative responsibilities too. Eventually, a management company took over, laid him off, and promoted me to his position. I felt terrible, but that's life I suppose.
I was doing pretty well there for a few years, but eventually took on a bigger workload in exchange for a big raise. We didn't discuss when I'd get the raise or how much because at the time the GM and I got along well, so I trusted him. A year and a half later, my workload continued to increase, and I mentioned that I'm still waiting on this raise. Instead, he said the money wasn't there so instead of giving me a raise, my pay was cut via removing my revenue-based bonuses. After working at this place for just shy of a decade, it was time for a change. I interviewed for a general manager position at another rink, but did not get the job. I was burnt out of working at an ice rink anyway and wanted a job that I don't need to think about when I'm not actually at work.
I was hanging out with a buddy of mine that was a longtime coworker before he left to start a career as a maintenance worker for a nearby government transportation dept. He suggested I go for that. There was a multiple choice test involving questions about various trades as well as some math. I had almost no trades experience since middle school because even in high school I always requested woodshop, drafting, etc, but they would always just put me in the business classes instead because that's where they directed the kids with good grades. I got all the math questions right, and that carried me to barely passing the test. There was then a practical test where we actually did some woodworking, hanging drywall, etc. I thought I failed that, but apparently did well enough to get the job. I went from interviewing for a general manager position to making more money only a couple years into this blue collar entry-level job, plus I have good health insurance, plenty of time off, I don't have to think about work when I'm not there, and I'll retire with a pension.
I'm not using my degree anymore, but if it wasn't for college and writing that business plan, I might wouldn't have become so close with the guy who initially hired and developed me, and wouldn't have become close friends with the coworker who pointed me towards my current job. To go even further back, if I didn't take that job at the local hockey shop during the summer after high school graduation, I wouldn't have even met the first guy and then the rest of my story probably wouldn't have happened. Someone mentioned early in this thread that early job choice matters. At the time, I took that job to make a few bucks over the summer, and it ended up being the beginning of a path that would eventually lead to a completely unrelated career.
A couple years ago, after I had left the ice rink industry, a guy that I used to play pickup roller hockey with when I was in college reached out to me on facebook. He was a recruiter at American Dream and was looking to hire someone experienced to run their ice rink and asked if I knew anyone qualified. I connected him with my old boss who taught me everything, and they hired him at the interview and paid him more than the advertised salary. For years I still felt bad about replacing the guy that taught me everything, so it felt great to have some closure on that and to give back.
TL;DR:
1. The value of college is not always the degree.
2. You never know who you meet that will end up being important later on.
3. Early job choice very well could have a huge impact on your career.
4. Blue collar jobs are well worth looking into, they're not just for kids with bad grades.