Would you consider Colleges as a paid service offering an unrealistic opportunity?

When my daughter, (a great kid, who did well in school), graduated from High School I gave her a choice; a three year enlistment or three years in a blue collar non-fast food job, then I would pay for school. She wasn't happy. All her friends were going off to college, paid for by mom and dad. She got a job as a 911 dispatcher. She kept in touch with her friends and saw them one by one fail out, or be dismissed for poor conduct. She realized they didn't care about college because they didn't know what they wanted to do, and they weren't invested in it. At the end of two years she started college part-time and paid for it herself, without getting any loans. Most importantly, at the end of three years, she said she understood what I and my wife had done and she wouldn't let me and her mother help her financially. She said it gave her laser focus when she was in class. In six years she completed her bachelors degree with honors and is now a stay at home mom and volunteer paramedic (her field of study). The problem isn't the colleges or universities. They will put out the garbage courses, degrees and certificates that we allow. If kids had to do what my daughter did, they wouldn't accept classes on Lady Gaga's impact on the entertainment industry.

I think college serves a different purpose than what it used to. School effectively extends childhood. In our history kids worked the fields and got a primary education (grade school), the whole concept of a summer break [that we still have in most schools] revolved around harvest time. The industrial revolution created factory jobs and more school came with it. School both extends the time a kid can be a kid and indirectly teaches them about factory life [stand in line, follow the rules]. Today's economy is information based. Kids are put on a pedestal, we are in the generation where everyone is a winner and everyone gets a trophy. 1993 Bill Clinton's expansion of federal tuition loans means that most everyone gets a chance to go to college to work in the new information age. This may have also effectively made 'education' a huge business, note rising cost of tuition since the 90's.

As time passes the age at which we push the world's grief onto a kid (a job) gets kicked down the road. I think we are effectively making the 18-22 year old more of a protected 'kid' than an adult. College gets to be another stepping stone to kinda sorta figure out what being an adult is like.

To answer your question though, the value of a degree is cheapened by the great number of degrees out there, the quality of institutions [degree mills], and the fact that we have unlimited sources of academic knowledge [for example you can be a fine computer scientist without ever getting a degree thanks to the internet].

I like the idea of college for engineering, medical and hard sciences. I hold 2 liberal type degrees and they have been paper drills and worthless [other than checking the box for a masters if I want to be an LTC]. I'm now in year 2 of a comp sci degree and its fabulously difficult and useful, my inbox is regularly spammed by recruiters.

Especially in the non-technical fields, a degree serves a barometer of ones ability to manage time & workloads. This being said, it's a good tool for prospective employers to filtrate candidates in the labor pool. The School of Hard Knocks teaches on the "real world" platform --and occasionally validates the worth of ones degree.

Interesting question, MSG Wally Carmichael. Most of our best education doesn't happen a classroom!