A few thoughts, none of which are actually answers:
a) Knowledge and forgetting is tricky. There’s a very good chance that even most of what you’ve forgotten is still there, and you’ll learn it again much more quickly should you ever need it at a later time. Your class didn’t give you knowledge, but it gave you the way to (re)acquire that knowledge when you need it.
b) Both the value of knowledge and the ability to use it is highly variable. the way it worked for me could be completely different than the way it will work for you. College is great for some subset, suboptimal but still positive for others, and negative for still others.
c) (perhaps most important) there’s a pretty strong argument that knowledge isn’t the primary value of college. The people you meet and/or the credentials you gain could well be the more important things, with (temporary) knowledge as a gateway to both—good (temporary) learning leads to hanging with smarter people and with better grades/degrees.
d) when asking “is it worth it”, you must always include “compared to what”? What’s your next best activity? Can you get a good engineering-related job without a degree? If so, maybe that IS better for you.
A few thoughts, none of which are actually answers:
a) Knowledge and forgetting is tricky. There’s a very good chance that even most of what you’ve forgotten is still there, and you’ll learn it again much more quickly should you ever need it at a later time. Your class didn’t give you knowledge, but it gave you the way to (re)acquire that knowledge when you need it.
b) Both the value of knowledge and the ability to use it is highly variable. the way it worked for me could be completely different than the way it will work for you. College is great for some subset, suboptimal but still positive for others, and negative for still others.
c) (perhaps most important) there’s a pretty strong argument that knowledge isn’t the primary value of college. The people you meet and/or the credentials you gain could well be the more important things, with (temporary) knowledge as a gateway to both—good (temporary) learning leads to hanging with smarter people and with better grades/degrees.
d) when asking “is it worth it”, you must always include “compared to what”? What’s your next best activity? Can you get a good engineering-related job without a degree? If so, maybe that IS better for you.