College education is priceless

Your education is something which can almost never be taken away from you. A graduate doesn't just have a chance of a better job, a graduate or anyone with formal education has had some degree of training in a mental discipline of some sort. As my tutor in Oxford told me - it doesn't really matter what you study, what matters is that you learn the discipline of study. Admittedly not everyone does their best or learns the most possible, but everybody with any education has had a chance to get something extra out of life because of what they have learned.

Choose a course you enjoy - even if it's French poetry

So what should you study? Well as I said, and as my tutor at Oxford taught me, it doesn't matter what you study, so choose something you are interested in, something you feel you could become passionate about. Think hard, because whimsical thinking can very easily make you think something you'd find interesting for a few hours would be adequate, when really you need to be able to keep your interest going for a number of years, possibly a lot longer if you take education all the way and become a doctor, as I myself look forward to doing one day when I have enough money to go back to it.

University or Vocational? - what about management courses, IT courses, business training, etc?

Although the university system is a very advantageous approach to education, enabling you to experience a rich social education also, cushioning your living expenses by keeping you in a world which is predominantly for students and giving you a kind of responsibility-holiday from the real world where jobs and time-consuming activities like household chores, are seen to play a much bigger role in your day than they do as a student. You could therefore choose vocational training, particularly if you are older than normal student age and are looking to go "back" to education. Vocational training is costly, uses far less time (so requires far more concentrated effort) but can quickly lead to new knowledge and job/income progression caused directly and swiftly by such education.

What you learn IS your pay

You can earn 300,000 dollars or pounds a year as a result of being well trained and placed in the right circumstances, but the wealth gained from education is nothing so shallow as pecuniary recompense. Education is driven by women and men with a thirst for self-development, and thus it is that education, no matter where in the world you get it, will drive YOUR thirst for self-development. Drink deep or taste not the Pierian Spring!