Higher education: a wash or the golden egg?

Sorry for not coming up with better analogies. I am curious for those who have not continued on to college/university if they think it would be a waste of time and/or those who HAVE attended, if they feel they wasted their time and should not have attended. Or, if you haven’t gone but would like to: why? Who did I leave out? Oh, if you went and felt it was helpful (kind of the default setting).