College has far more value than just getting people jobs, you know.
A good education about the world around them is necessary to be a good citizen. You know, like how RedKing was saying before; people who don't go to college (generally speaking) are stuck in their old ideas that are incredibly stupid, like being gay is evil.
That depends entirely on the College. There are BAD Colleges out there. Really stupendously bad ones. I am not even kidding.
College=/=Enlightenment. You're thinking of the process of growing older in and of itself. College represents that, but it doesn't necessarily do it.
Yeah, having attended classes on 5 different campuses, from a Community College, to a small-town University, to a "Teaching School", to the two most prestigious Universities in my state... I can say that each was a fundamentally different experience, and was valuable to me in different ways. And also blew chunks in different ways.
The density of information and formative experiences you get in a College environment is more intense than you'll encounter learning on your own. Your minds are inundated with information for hours every day (from instructors, labs, reading, etc), and living in close proximity to others for months at a time tends to erupt into social experiences both good and bad as well.
I think I've learned academic material much more quickly in College than on my own... but I've developed my skills more significantly, got a better handle on my problems, and came closer to whatever approximates enlightenment while outside College. My experience was non-standard, though, so take this with several scoops of salt.