I would just say college is what you make of it. If a kid doesn't know what they want to major in, they may want to stay close to home and go to a local Junior College or community college to save money. Maybe get out and find a non-food service job until they get things figured out. I remember a lot of kids from my high school started in college and then dropped out due to partying or lack of interest. The ones who wanted it, went back. Others found other jobs.
On the communists at colleges thing, all I can say is to try to teach kids a little critical thinking skills and such before they go to college so they can at least ask the college communists to be more specific which they often cannot. I wonder if there are books/videos on recognizing common argument/persuasion tactics or just classical rhetoric stuff.
I did one year of JC right out of High School and soon was mature enough to realize that I was not mature enough to buckle down in college. I waited eight years, working in the oil patch and the county dump earning money for college, and the years of blue collar from the "not real fun" end of the blue collar jobs was a pretty big motivator to get me to buckle down on college attempt #2.
I also did the two years at JC at night while I was working at the dump (the county paid for it) to get all the "check the box" classes out of the way, then was able to concentrate on my major when I went to the high dollar college. I strongly believe that my blue collar time, outlined in that letter you write when you submit your application, along with 4.0 at JC, was a primary factor getting me accepted at several of the top UCs in California.
Though I honestly don't know that, were I that same age now with what I'm seeing going on at college campuses, if I would still make the college choice. I recently looked at my old department at UCSB, who during my time had some uber-sciency message as their mission statement, and now has some DEI blather as their mission statement. In a science department. I also perused the current MA/PhD student bios, and saw the words "gender" and "diversity" mentioned way too many times in science thesis and dissertation projects.
That said, there was plenty of proto-woke stuff going on in my time, and most of it was easy enough to ignore. I had several professors who were pushing the global warming crap at the time, so I just put my brain on automatic in their lectures to get the grade, and then did research on my own time in the subject matter, based on my interests and goals.
I think the big problem currently, especially at the Ivy League schools, is that it's much, much harder to fly under the radar. You can't just tell a transgender, "Hey, whatever floats your boat, man." You now have to bend the knee, and not just accept, but promote and cheer, and if you don't, you can actually get kicked out of college for hate. I'll only bend the knee for one guy, and he's not on Earth.
