I Just Defended My Bachelor's Thesis. Was University Worth It?

I defended my bachelor's thesis today.

A few hours ago I was standing in front of a committee, answering questions about research I'd spent months on. Now it's over. The degree is done.

And somewhere between the handshakes and the walk home, the obvious question surfaced: was it worth it?

I've been in tech long enough to know this is a loaded question. There are people who will tell you a CS degree is the only real foundation. There are people who will tell you it's an overpriced piece of paper and you should have been building on GitHub instead. Both camps are more confident than the reality warrants.

Here's my honest answer, written today of all days, while it's still fresh.