I agree with the author because it’s very clear that as an entrepreneur, he has made a choice which he regrets now. I’m not sure what made him to take such a decision so I will not try to guess the rational behind the decision and judge him based on that.
What I would like to know is whether he was aware of the takeaways (he wants) form the college before deciding the course, university etc. From the article, other than critical thinking I don’t find any takeaways so it makes sense that he feels like waste of time, money and effort. I would like to point that even only for a critical thinking aspect, he could have chosen a different course, university etc and may have been happy with the decision.
For the kid who wants to be an entrepreneur and hasn’t mapped out all details of his business venture, I would strongly recommend to do the opposite of what this article suggests.
The biggest takeaway from a college would be Exposure.
I can’t stress enough the importance of contacts. Learning/Improving a skill can be done online but you cannot do everything by yourself. At some point you are going to lack a skill which is not your piece of cake. I’m not saying that you cannot do it, deep down you know that it can done better but not by you. Finding someone who understands how you think and has the skill to execute it the way you want, is one of the hardest things in the world.
Success and failure are inevitable but regret is choice because regret hits you only when you know that you didn’t give your best.
Even in the worst case, you would know what is lacking among fellow graduates in terms of skills and try to make business out of it. College is a place where you can meet your potential future technical lead, designer, marketing head and most importantly clients.
Try to list down what you want from a college and choose wisely based on this when deciding about university, course etc. If you are not able to list done then choose something which you find intriguing so that it keeps you motivated till the end.