going to college may seem like a waste of time. You anyway study from YouTube one day before the exam, but it can give you tons of dots that will be connected once you reach the end of your terms. At this fine point in time when I am near graduation, I was thinking if I could have done the same thing as I am doing now, my asymmetric returns could have been so high. You don't go to IIT because the study there is the best; everything is available on the internet. You go because you are that top 0.1% who meet those 0.1% and have networks with 0.01% who were once a 0.1%. The knowledge and mistakes are passed down to you to save your time and get things done quicker than it took for others.
but when you are in 12th, you are not given much of an option except to go through JEE/NEET. If you didn't make it there, you study anything which has a "scope". You aren't given much time to categorize your interests and choose one.
that's where college, with whatever degree you have, gives you an opportunity. The first year is about doing nothing but meeting a wide range of people, hanging out where the vibe sets right, and eventually connecting with them to get the clarity you wanted. It doesn't have to be only from college; it can be from any place. It gives parents a sense of you doing something rather than figuring out without a college.
the universe somehow works in a way to connect you to the right set of people. They either will take you to the right place or make you meet further right people to take you forward in life. Once that hits you, your further clarification will be done in how hard you try to get something out of it. So basically, what you seek will eventually seek you. This can go the other way around, so be careful but also keep a light version for the first two years.
you start to learn tons of things, ask questions, try to figure out what it is. You really don't find many things that fascinate you, but will definitely find something that gives you an "ahhh" moment. This can be achieved from many untracked ways that might look cool. There's nothing bad about trying out things that seem cool to you. You start to have a biased interest towards that thing and work hard to be better so in order to be cool in the beginning. That's how you start. You will either start working on something if doing that thing makes you cool or if you are curious enough. I believe curiosity also comes from things you find cool to work on. You just need to build things you find cool.
you plan out so much on a whiteboard only to fill up x% and the remaining you erase to iterate to new ways to learn, understand, and build again. And when you are at this stage where you have confidence to figure out things at any point and your parents see you working hard on things that make you work hard from far apart, you might cancel on attending classes in case of no attendance issue or find out ways, but the first year is so goddamn important.
once you have sustainable monetary returns, you can drop out.