There are values in attending college. On a pragmatic sense, it is better to make a living with a college degree. There are also great subjects that are useful to spiritual growth like psychology and philosophy.
What you called meaningless and emptiness is probably not an insight you got. It is an emotion - you are depressed. I have been there when I was on my junior year in high school with all the pressure to get straight A's on my AP classes. I asked myself why do I need to work this hard? We are going to die anyway so nothing really matters. Why even pursue spiritual enlightenment or self actualization? That takes hard work and causes a great deal of struggling.
I had this kind of thoughts for several weeks, feeling extremely depressed. But what did I do? I immersed myself into phone, food, porn. Yeah, these things will make me feel better than studying. It ended up making me more miserable and depressed because these things make me feel more painful not happy.
Okay, then I think to myself, obviously I don't have the courage to end my life now. If I were to continue my life, I want to have an unconditionally happy life. But that requires work! I need to meditate. I need to contemplate. I need to read books. I don't want to do all of them. Those are painful. Everything is meaningless right...... At this point I felt that maybe this "everything is meaningless" is just an excuse used by the ego to avoid work. Enlightened people who truly understand these truths are not as depressed as me. They are happy. They are disciplined. They are hard-working.
And then I further I admit that I am just a newbie, an ordinary trapped person. I still have a lot of addictions. I still want to have love and security. I still crave for success and comfort. I am not out of the society. And most importantly, I am not an enlightened master who have looked through the illusion of life and death and understood the true meaning of meaningless and emptiness. Don't lie to yourself, your small little petty ego who thinks you know something.
I got humble. I fully accepted my situation. And my perspective on life changes a bit: in this life, I am going to live for the highest quality. I am going to experience the most beautiful thing. I am going to be the happiest person. I am going to understand the meaning of life and death. These goals makes me feel better than pretending to know "everything is meaningless" or working blindly and unconsciously.
Now I still have ups and downs. I am still an ordinary trapped person. But I am motivated to work - work on myself - every day.
The biggest takeaway I think is: don't lie to yourself and believe that you can live a no suffering, happy life.
Hope it is helpful.
