If you are in the US and thinking about going to college instead of trade school or working, I highly, highly recommend community college and getting an associates degree first, even though you cannot use it for a lot of jobs.

I attended a University directly after high school pursuing a 4 year bachelors degree and I failed out after getting about half way through a degree.

After almost 10 years I went back to community college, started from the bottom, and got an associates degree with better quality of classes, better teachers, and for much, much less money. My community college had a direct transfer to my old University and I transferred in as a Junior. I graduated two years later with a Bachelor's degree.

I am now on a direct path PhD program with a couple years left because I want to be on the cutting edge and do work that pushes the boundaries of our knowledge.

Different degrees open different levels of work, so think about what you want to do and how that role fits into what a company, lab, or the government is looking for.

Basic work now usually requires a Bachelor's and you'll usually be doing work that is well defined with not a lot of flexibility. Masters work is more specialized and often define the Bachelor's work flow. PhD work, along witth some masters, push the edge of what we know and do, and use Bachelor's to fulfill tasks they define to push the boundaries.

Different pay and responsibilities come with these roles, and there are certifications and experience that also impact roles depending on industry. Try to get experience in the field you want to go into and try to figure out what role you want to have. Sometimes a Bachelor's and a certificate is all you need.

Tl;dr, really consider community college first if you are in the US. Save money and get a better experience.