My take on the awesome (!) efficiency of college...

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So, lemme get this straight: college (or schools in general, not sure about unis) gives you the amazing (gulp) opportunity to learn everything that you're able to learn 100x on the Internet... except often, as I just happen to notice being the case with some of my notes, they're at best second-rate, with photocopied papers missing half their ink. Oh, and did I mention that it costs 100x as much as an Internet connection does?

What a f*****g scam! The equivalent of viagra spam in your mailbox... except with education systems, somehow, the whole world is forced to click that viral link...

While you can most certainly teach yourself by reading textbooks on your own (which I have done all my life), you can't do a chemistry lab online. You can't learn how to do surgery online. You can't have your knowledge taken seriously without an official degree. Yes, colleges' insane tuition prices are outrageous and on the verge of "scam," but you can't learn EVERYTHING from reading a book, especially in the sciences. You need hands-on practice and tutelage.

Alright, so the price is my main objection here (this being besides the issue I have with capitalism in general - surely, though, even someone who believes in free markets could see how screwed up the situation with the education system is).

Price, because even before the Internet came into existence where everything is at the click of a mouse... in your own home (last year I wasted... and I mean, totally wasted my health travelling three miles on a bike every time I had to go to college, constantly being in risk of being hit by all sorts of vehicles, all the while my depression spirals out of control... GODDAMMIT! It'd be at least slightly more acceptable if I didn't have access to all the world's information in just my lap!) - even before the Internet, there were always libraries around. So how could colleges still be so expensive?!

And, yes, I'm arguing this even though technically - so far - I haven't paid anything out of my own income, and some ret*d people IRL certainly tried to use that as an argument against my rants... but that is obviously stupid, as taxpayers' money is still used to fund a blatant scam, just like it is for bailing out gambling banks.

What also irks me is that NO ONE in the world seems to point this out, or at least rant half as much as I do... when the system just seems so obviously abusive to me. Sure, they protest over tuition rises, but have they even questioned the system in the first place? Has anyone ever said "hm, in view of libraries and the Internet are these systems really worth that much?"

I seriously doubt that even a tenth of libraries (in the U.S., at least) carry the sort of books that can provide the equivalent of a bachelor's degree in any major besides liberal arts. Outside of big cities, libraries probably rarely have upper division math-, science-, engineering-, and foreign language-level books, for example. One could get up to an Associate's Degree, that's about it.

You also don't get the guidance on the Internet that you get from a knowledgeable prof. There is so much crap available on the Internet that if someone told me that they were educated by the Internet, I'd assume that at least half of everything they learned to be just flat out wrong.

Very true. But you don't necessarily have to learn online if you want to learn on your own. When I teach myself, I only ever read actual journal articles I get on PubMed or (more often) actual textbooks that would be used in an actual class. The only time you should educate yourself on general Internet sites (like Wikipedia) is to learn very basic information about something you've never heard of before. Like, if you have never heard of a particular disease or want to know a certain country's capital, Wikipedia is fine. But if you want to actually learn hard-core scientific concepts or something, textbooks and journal articles are where you need to go.

You might want to check out MIT's online course materials.

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

The price of college is a three fold issue

1.) People want fancy things. You want to go to to the college with the best professors, best dorms, best computers, best dining halls open 24/7, best buildings, best everything. The best costs money.

2.) Student loans are so plentiful and obtainable through the Fed that there is no real motivation to cut costs. Think non-profit state schools are bad, try these for profits like Phoenix.

3.) Inflation in general is driving prices up.

wow, are there any college dining halls that are actually open 24 hours a day?

I don't know. I've seen kids demand them when I went to school, but they compromised on 7am-11:30pm.

My school now is having an issue that there are 3 dining halls and they aren't doing enough business to justify the 3rd one, but no one wants to walk the extra few minutes to avoid price hikes.

To have cheaper college:
1. Get good grades in highschool
2. (for the US) get a high ACT or SAT score.
3a. from the first 2 get a scholarship
3b. Do extra curricular activities to get a scholarship
4. Do not go to an out of state college if you are going to pay the higher tuition.
5. Proficiency exams, AP tests, CLEP tests, Dantes, Dual credit. -very good idea-
6. Community colleges are cheaper, can get general eds there then transfer.

Not saying all of these are necessary.

Looking for good deals in colleges is important too.

Usually there are guides published yearly that indicate which colleges are considered good value for money.

College is good for:
* Prove to employer etc that you know certain things.
* Get hands on experience.
* Access to professors and other students and not the least the academic enviroment which is different as in "want to play fotball?" to "wanna join our fusion reactor projector in our club?".

Textbooks, clubs, and internet is for sure useful to read up and do your homework before college. Of course it's always possible to beat the system in new ways if you reconsider some of the stuff here.

Try getting a job without that degree. Let me know how it goes.

I actually focus better in class then studying on my own. Also in high school I couldn't find econ textbooks that are advanced enough.

It also proves to employers that you have at least enough fortitude to stick it out long enough to earn a degree.