While the education is likely equal or better, college is also about starting your network, especially for those of us not going to traditionally elite schools.

Thinking about my personal career trajectory, my first job came from an internship set up by my university. A coworker from that job left and pulled me to my second, and when I left there it was because an old classmate referred me to a third.

Had I studied abroad and returned home I would have lacked that network, and that feels like a risk.