FIRE is like college in that in both, you are escaping from something horrible, into something non-horrible, which is always good.
In college you are escaping from the horror of the high school experience. In FIRE you are escaping from the horrorfest known as Megacorp, usually.
However, I think FIRE is much better than college, at least for me, since college is full of anxiety about the future, such as will I be the successful brain surgeon or attorney my parents know I can be? etc, etc. In FIRE I find the anxiety about unanswered questions to be much less. It's not as exciting as college, but hey, I'll take it. Ha Ha.