Have you ever considered that your advice to parents should have been applied to your college experience?
A college education in which you go to class, study, and do assignments is not worth $50K. College lets you do a lot more than that, and it sounds like you robbed yourself of a great four years.
I do, but unfortunately, coming from Northwest Ohio and two parents who didn't attend college in its entirety themselves (my mom had an associates), the need to groom me early (assuming, here) wasn't immediately apparent.
Moreover, sitting in a tiny box, having sex, getting loaded (proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuJ60dAHyc4 -- a party house my roommates and I ran) and joining campus orgs (I ran the campus radio station as the General Manager my Sophomore year and was an active member throughout my stint at the school -- I was even awarded a years worth of paid tuition) was still not worth the skull crushing debt I now have to dig through.
If I skipped college, I still would have gotten laid, smoked pot, and learned how to program.
Edit: I taught myself how to program in my spare time. My degree is in broadcast management.
A college education in which you go to class, study, and do assignments is not worth $50K. College lets you do a lot more than that, and it sounds like you robbed yourself of a great four years.