Everyone has a different path.

I ran out of money, dropped out of college and self taught myself straight to 6 figures.

Thank you Brendan Eich for JavaScript. Without it I'd probably still be making minimum wage, or working in a Java shop which might be worse.

I finished my useless BA just to hang it on my wall.

College should not be a job training program. It's valuable on its own merits, but the loop of you need a degree to get a job, and you need money to get a degree, so you can get a job to pay off your loans is stupid.

If anything, and this is an American perspective, high school has failed.

You should be able to read and write to a point of employability.

If you want to go to college, it should be optional. Do it after work or part time.

Outside of maybe medicine, law( which is debatable, you can technically just take the bar after a clerkship in a few states), and maybe a few other careers, college isn't needed.

Why in God's name would you get a Masters in Art, the loan payments will make it impossible to survive.

Just make the art!

Draw.

Write poems!

Want to make games, make games!

Knowledge is basically free, we're still adapting to this.