Somewhere in my stacks of books there's a copy of "The Screwing of the Average Man", by David Hapgood [1]. One of the chapters points out that College was originally something wealthy parents to send their children to, so that their offspring would have a leg up on the underclass. When hiring to fill a position, those doing the hiring would choose to go with the college graduate because they were "obviously" a better candidate for the job.
Then WWII came to a conclusion, and lots of newly unemployed veterans had nothing to do. According to Mr. Hapgood, because the Congress didn't want a bunch of PTSD'd young men wandering around, they started the G.I. Bill. [2], which paid for retired soldiers to go to college too. Thus began the college cost spiral.
I suffered through a computer science degree. It is a piece of paper hanging on the wall.
If you choose to start a college program, you have to be very focused on what's important to you about the courses that you take. I most certainly would NOT start out full time... Maybe take two courses to get a feel for the institution. You'll probably find that you're perfectly capable of teaching yourself quicker than any course you take.
[1] https://books.google.com/books?id=-PJ0DLVOIXcC (I don't agree many of the "screwings" that this book describes, but it does have a good point about college)
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._Bill (my one WWII grandfather had already graduated from dental school, so he used the GI Bill to learn to fly a plane. My other grandfather had no interest in "more school", didn't take advantage of it, and barely scraped by for a long time)