It depends a lot on what field you eventually go into and what you make of your college experience. Some jobs, like engineering, require a college education so you at least know the basics. But there are a lot of areas that don't require a college diploma to do well.
True. For some jobs (like an engineer or a surgeon, for example), there is really no other choice than going to college. Nobody is going to let you perform brain surgery or design a bridge if you don't hold the relevant qualifications. Then there are jobs like scientist and so on where a college degree is a huge help, but not technically mandatory. And then finally there are jobs like entrepreneur or programmer where a degree doesn't really help that much, if at all.