In many cases a degree is just a way of proving you can study or are clever. What you actually do to prove that is kinda irrelevant. Someone with a degree in ancient history from Cambridge is a much better bet to become a CEO or leading politician than someone who studied medicine in the online University of Palookaville. College is also useful for making contacts, and just 'growing up' and getting a broader outlook on life in general. Nothing I specifically learned in class at university was particularly useful for real life, but it was great for getting initial job interviews. The contacts made there were also pretty useful. Overall I'd say it was a better use of 3 years than other alternatives at the time. Anyway, most education is self-taught by reading, experimenting, and thinking.
If everyone had to pay for college upfront, without student loans, tuiton would drop. College doesn't need to be four years. Three of those four years are spent taking courses that have nothing to do with your major, a complete waste of time and money. College should be just one year and you then earn your bachelor's degree. Even better, there should be no classroom attendance required; all you have to do is just buy your books relating to your major for a few hundred dollars, read them from home at your own pace, and then after one year, you earn your bachelor's degree, and college ends up only costing you $200 or $300 for some used books.
That is an astute observation, and I might add that there is a distinct difference between education and job training. There will remain, as always, a minority of citizens that are well-educated. A good education is expensive and not everyone will be able to avail themselves of one. Your best bet is to come from a family of means or to be truly poverty stricken. The latter category qualifies for grants that don't have to be repaid. Anyone in the middle ground is going to find it difficult. There are limited venues from which an education can be had. Typical junior and community colleges, or for-profit colleges and universities cannot provide it. Nor can the school of hard knocks -- though that kind of learning is valuable. Sadly, some of the institutions that are quite capable of educating don't always step to the plate. In any case, the process of becoming educated requires more effort from the student than it does from the institution. Many on ET obviously don't make the distinction between education and job training. They use the words "education" and "job training" as though they were interchangeable.
I disagree. Studying things like Humanities and Philosophy while you are pursuing a degree in computer science is extremely important because it teaches you how to think and helps you grow up much faster. I bitched my way all through Humanities but now that I'm a little older and a lot wiser I quickly realize that this class has helped me in ways I never would have imagined. How can you not get inspired by studying the amazing accomplishments of other human beings or learning about the land between the two rivers? Education should be viewed as a life-long event. You don't stop learning when someone hands you a piece of paper after 4-years but so, so many view it that way. I can't tell you how many times I'd hear people walking around campus saying, "C's get degrees." Truly sad.
I agree, even paying as they go would be an improvement. All the "free" money/credit has people paying too much for degrees they don't even need.