Your post is loaded with excellent advice rooted in common sense. College is overrated and I say that as a person with 3 college degrees. I read about young people with thousands of dollars of student-loan debt and no degree or, almost as bad, thousands of dollars of student-loan debt and a USELESS degree and think "too bad they didn't meet someone like you" when they were making - or being led to - bad and expensive choices. I enjoy it when a former band student becomes a welder or a truck driver or a plumber and makes more than I ever did teaching them music. And, of course, I also enjoy seeing some former students go on to become better band directors than I ever was!