Is university worth the money?

What do you intend to DO with University?  That is the only thing to determine whether or not it was.

I think so. I had to have a teaching certificate and a degree to do what I loved. But I will not live long enough to pay off my student loans.

It reaches a point where people go on to higher degrees because they can't get jobs but they can get plenty of school loans.

I'd say so.

 I went to college for 2 months and got my diploma. OK,OK, it was a local college with a "truck driving" course. I passed with a 92. That was a few years ago, now I make more money than my cousins who went to Michigan State.

Get a simple job and a cheap pad within walking distance. That is so you don't have to waste your money on transportation. Save half of everything you earn. Yes, half. To start, keep your savings in gold or silver coins which you do not store in anybody else's vault. (IOW hide them at home.) Spend your evenings studying investment books at the public library. When you are smart enough then you can make other investments. If you earn ten bux an hour and save half, in only ten years you will have A HUNDRED THOUSAND BUX not counting interest or capital gains or paper profits: only principle. There is no other plan that will give you a net worth above zero in only ten years. And there is no school that will teach you any such thing.

Does this plan work? Andrew Carnegie worked five years, saved his wages, and then put it all into a tech stock: telegraph. You might have heard the name. His hobby was building concert halls and libraries.

His other hobby was bursting dams.

I am about to start in September and I know for a fact that it will be worth the money because I will be taking the same degree that my dad did and he is very successful in his career. He also has a job for life and if I get the degree I will too. 

It has been for me. It depends on what you want to do in life. Since I wanted a life in academia, there was really no other option for me.