Disclaimer: I’m not from the US.
As a student in a relatively large-ish city, I’ve been doing fine with public transportation. I’m not particularly interested in driving because of (no particular order):
- environmental impact (in part mitigated by EVs)
- ‘severe’ ADHD; I would never be relaxed driving
- safety; I don’t trust other drivers to follow the rules properly
Should I still get a driver’s license sooner than later?
Yes.
But I grew up in a city where existence was effectively impossible without a car, so when I say fuck cars it comes with a very sober realization that the system will punish you for trying not to drive.
You can minimize cars in your lifestyle but until we can get systemic change that lasts, we will always have to work in the system we have.
Probably getting a licence would be useful. You don’t have to own a car in order to maintain a licence, but it could be handy to have the ability to drive should you ever need to.
I think having it on the CV looks good, but in a big city it is otherwise unnecessary. I can use public transport to get everywhere I need.
As the other comments suggested, getting a driving licence even if right now you don’t need it is a good choice for the future. You might decide or be forced to move somewhere where not having a licence, so not driving, might be impossible for day to day life.
Also, since you are a student you have probably more to time to prepare for the exams, so I’d suggest taking it soon.
A future job might require it. Depends a bit on the type of jobs you are looking to do in the future.
If you ever plan to travel to a place that doesn’t have working public transit (e.g. US), you don’t really have a choice not to (although you may wait until an employer pays for it).
Cars have their legit uses, and being able to rent (carshare) one for the few cases per year where it is exceptionally inconvenient not to have one is great. OTOH, depending on where you live, the cost of getting a license might be able to pay for some completely absurd taxi/Uber trips. If a trip costs $300, most people wouldn’t consider it, but if you do that once a year and the license would cost you $3000, that’s less unreasonable than it looks like.