- Master degree (as in, formal title; it may come in handy)
- Access to expensive/difficult to get equipment - for all those
crazy ideas of mine that involve e.g. a piece of custom hardware
- Access to people who know some particular area inside out
- All the smart people who study at the university - there won't be
any other chance to meet so many amazing people and maybe Build
Something Amazing with them, and then keep contact for the future.
- Cheaper tickets for public transport.
I'd argue that you ARE there for knowledge just not the kind that universities tend to say they give you.
Rather it's the kind of knowledge that the University system was supposed to give you before they all turned into job training, especially telling is "Access to people who know some particular area inside out". That's what university is supposed to be about.
Of course cheap bus is nice too.
I know a qualified BSc mechanical engineer who works in a supermarket for wage scraps.