Of course everyone with half a brain will say it is not worth the cost. Specially if you decide to have your degree on Bachelor of arts in history with a minor on "the social and historical circumstances of the people southwest of the Ural mountains in the 15th century", I fail to see employability or a return on investment soon.
Also, the way the education has been privatized in the USoA, if you want to graduate with a paper that says "harvard, yale, MIT or GeorgiaTech" it makes more sense and is cheaper to look in your state for the best state university that allows you to transfer as many credist as possible to any of those, do your fisrt three years there, then transfer as many credits as possible to your ultimate taget, and do your last 1.5~2 years there. It will be significantly cheaper, so less economic burden on you.
And, do not get me started on people that, after 2 years on a super-costly university discover that, after all, they did not want to study a BA in history with a minor on "the social and historical circumstances of the people southwest of the Ural mountains in the 15th century", but instead, want to study a BA on Geography with a minor on "the specific geography of the indonesian achipelago", wasting 2 years of supper expensive tuition, because they went straight to the super-costly university instead of reamining in-state, so the change of heart comes with a reduced price-tag. I mean, nothing wrong with realizing that you made a mistake with your career choice. Is worse even to realize you made a mistake and yet continue because of a sunken cost falacy, or family/social/peer pressure. Everything wrong with making the change of heart more costly than it should have been.
TL;DR: If you want to pursue a 4 year degre, look for high employability high return careers (within your calling) and do your first 3 years in state (so less student debt for you), in an institution that allows you to transfer as many cradits as possible to your final target, it will be cheaper overall, and, in case of a change of heart, the change of direction will be cheaper as well.
JM2C
YMMV
Full disclosure: My country (Venezuela) gave me university education for free (I consider a tuition of U$D 10 per year free), but my country did not pay for room, board, or books and materials. This was the top notch university for engineering in my country, and the academic level was nice indeed. As I was inmature (I entered university @ 16), a career that should have taken 5 years took me 7, nonetheless, I got an honorific mention on my thesis, so I was able to mend the ship once I became a more mature person. My country was generous and forgiving, and I was very fortunate, priviledged even.
