First, if college is all about social interaction, then it's hardly worth the money. I can go to conferences, take non-university classes, pay for coworking spaces, and intern at places all for much cheaper than college. I found it very difficult to interact socially at UT — the campus is enormous, making it rare for me to randomly run into people, and also, I grew up in Austin, so I already had a pretty solid base of friends and there was little pressure to find new ones (though I did meet many people, mostly through friends I already had).
I think your views on the CS degree are pretty much why I didn't get that degree. I don't want to be comfortably employed; I have no intention of making my life a linear path from college -> work -> family -> retirement. I don't ever plan to retire, because there is nothing I love more than challenging my creativity. If I had a CS degree, I would probably have a pretty high paying job in a nice place right now, but I certainly wouldn't be traveling 5 months out of the year (and in 2014, 11 months if things go according to plan). I like programming, and especially designing, for the web, but I also like working for myself. I have a pretty decent portfolio, and although I haven't gotten any huge jobs yet (biggest so far are a dating social network and a minisite for NASA), I make enough to support myself and my travels.
I also think getting a degree in CS would have minimized my passion for it. Getting a degree in linguistics certainly stamped out any ambitions I had on becoming a professional linguist. Although, I did get an enormous amount of value out of all of the electives I was able to take because linguistics is only a 24-hour major. I would have, no doubt, learned more computer science, but I know enough right now to get paid to do it, which gives me the freedom to learn it on my own time. And, I'm trying to transition to becoming a designer right now, which is its own set of challenges; something I would have completely ignored had I been taking a CS degree.
Lastly, traveling is definitely not cheaper when you're going through the university. When I travel, I stay on couches (CouchSurfing) or work on farms and homesteads (WWOOF), giving me guaranteed access to social interaction and informal education (I am staying on a farm in the mountains of North Carolina for two months while I work on a full-length album at their music studio, this will cost me $150/mo. in rent — and they are eager to teach me everything they know about foraging, which is very popular in this region, given all of the naturally occurring edible plants and fungi; I have also budgeted around $900-1200 for a two-month trip to Peru).
In sum: - Social interaction can be found elsewhere, for free. College is about learning, at least for me. - The CS degree probably would have been a good idea for someone who wanted a comfortable, stable livelihood after college. This is not me. - Using the university to travel would have cost a lot more than my current travel plans. I would have certainly learned a lot studying abroad, but since I plan to be "studying" and traveling "abroad" for most of my life, I
Thanks for the advice, but it is really geared towards someone who is headed for a different path, something more stable, something with a larger salary. Living my life through challenges and adventures is exactly how I want to do it. It pushes my mind and creativity to new places, and I have no plans to become stagnant.
Also, if I had the money, you bet I would go back to school. I would get a Bachelors in history, computer science, music, design, biology, and physics and anything else I could. I love classes, and I love going to lectures. This is why I'm so excited about MOOCs.