It would do a lot of women good too. Plus, that whole bit about having tongoing to college right away or else you never will is bullshit. 26 to 30 is not too old to start college. It might be more advantageous too.

You’d have a better idea of where your passions truly lie. You’d be more financially able to pay for it out of pocket by setting aside salary portions while you’re working those trade jobs and still living at home rather taking on huge loans. If you want to have kids at that age, it’s really good timing; no job demands and many universities have child care available to students for low or no cost. If you already have kids, you can go to school at the same time so you’re not juggling school schedule with work schedule during their early school years (which is a nightmare for a lot of jobs). Depending upon what your job is, you may be able to set up a work/study co-op with your employer where you work half the year and study half the year, etc. You’ll have a few years to fill the gap between high school and college that disadvantaged kids have through personal studies. More time/less pressure to visit and choose colleges; establish repertoire with your future professors and gain a mentor.

There are actually a lot of pros to doing things this way rather than following the traditional path.