I really don't get these type of articles. If you want to argue that college is a mistake, you will find reasons to justify it (student loans, non-translating academia to real world). IF you want to argue that college is not a mistake, you will find reasons as well (networks, lasting friends, potential life partner, social credit & new perspectives and fun: late night study group sessions building camraderie you can reminisce if you run into each other through alumni culture, social activities and so on).

Who you were in college/university, what courses you took and how much it cost is missing the point is completely subjective. If you took STEM path but you felt like you could've leveraged your open source contributions to a job, yeah you might be inclined to view it as a transactional loss (which to me is quite predictable and telling of their outlook). IF you did not take traditional STEM path and do not translate into an acceptable level of intellectual challenge/livable wage you will also view it as transactional loss (also quite telling what sort of preferences and outlook this group has).

Who you were in college/university, who you met, what sort of social experiences and relations you had will directly translate into how much you view it as worth it.

What you get out of something is largely what you perceive as valuable and your current situation will play a large role in that. So it is perfectly acceptable to feel at different points, college/uni was worth it/not worth it.

Just for me on a personal level, the friends I have gained through clubs, memories of working late in groups, socializing (pushed myself here), relationships more than made it worth it. My only regret was not pushing myself further to seek potential partner relationships because outside in the real world, there is a loss of innocence and naivete that you could only find in such environments. Everything feels transactional between adults with careers and strings attached although that isn't to say you won't find similar bonding-over-camraderie and aligned interests, you might find even more worth while relationships. It's just that intimate ones seem much harder to come by (at least for me) and that would be my biggest mistake, not exploring/pursuing those because of more problems I deemed more urgent: academia (impacts job), a job upon graduation ( a huge source of anxiety). In reality, I created these urgencies to avoid and limit myself when I should've been all out exploring. It actually might have made me more efficient at studies too. It's the inaction that kills me and I tried to justify it through PTSD, wounds, external things when the correct action would've been to aim to become wiser.

I'm thankful for whatever relationships remain, and I feel lucky to say that I've gained friends for life due to college/university but was only possible because I pushed myself to the extremes of comfort zone. Something that I'm saddened to say, I increasingly avoid as I get older. I'm screwed but having friends lessen that dread more, although that isn't to say you can't find ways to do it yourself without external things.

Rambled on here but seems tough to really limit this discussion without involving some personal anecdotes because the axiom highlighted in the article is completely irrelevant to anybody reading if they realize its wholly subjective.