School is not a place to get educated or even trained. The distinction between learning skills and being educated has been blurred to the point making the whole institution of schooling absurd. Ivan Illich called it the international caste system.
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You can certainly learn skills via a college education. I did. But it's also true that, depending on your choices, you can go to college for four years or more and not learn a single skill.
Yes you can of course, but that doesn't mean it's optimal. The reason it's pursued is because all people care about is "getting a job" which needs the stamp of approval. It's exactly like you can learn about God attending church but doesn't mean you will find salvation if you do. Skills were traditionally learned through training programs or apprenticeships, college was reserved solely for liberal education. Now most of pedagogy and instructors see this as the same thing along with the majority of students. I think you can learn more outside of school then you can in them and at a quicker time period perhaps and definitely cheaper.
Some people will argue that you can't do medicine or certain licensed fields without the credential. But medicine is another racket in itself that doesn't promote healthcare. To practice law you also need a credential but that is just creature of the State; doesn't have anything to do with justice. Being a teacher you need a license though that's just essentially a glamorized day care system with horrible practices. It seems that the fields that require credentials are frankly useless and damaging.
Also, it creates a mindset of authority and discrimination toward those who don't have any accreditations. Employers expect it and judge prospective employees based on them, and nobody even most employees really questions if that is legitimate thing to do. I have known plenty of programmers who were self-taught and even more technically minded than those who did computer science degrees. Some felt insecure that they didn't have a degree, although they were just as good or better than those that did but because of this caste system some of them couldn't do certain jobs because they didn't have the approval of the educational authorities.
Almost anything can be learned on your own. Employers want some evidence that you have actually learned what they want you to know before hiring you. Currently, having a college education is often the best way to do this. Is it optimal? Probably not, but that doesn't mean it is worthless either. Going to college also doesn't prevent you from learning on your own. In fact, if you are doing that anyway then college should be relatively easy.
Universities, on average, may be very liberal but you won't necessarily see much of that if you are getting a technical degree. I didn't. The medical industry, like the education industry may not be optimal but that doesn't mean they are worthless.
At any rate, there are two separate arguments here. 1) Is a college degree the ideal way to train you for what you want to do and 2) Is a college degree a worthwhile investment in terms of employment opportunity. 1) Probably not but it can still be beneficial. 2) Depends on what you want to do and certainly not always but in very many cases, yes.
Well said. The only thing I would add is that while a college degree may be worthwhile in terms of immediate employment opportunity, every year college degrees are becoming inflated. I don't see this situation lasting more than 10-20 years without some "educational crisis", so alternatives need to be thought about.
Looking at tuition at the University I attended, it has slightly more than doubled since 1998. $1 in 1998 would be worth $1.50 today. So roughly speaking, tuition has about doubled inflation. This is bad but not as bad as some would suggest. I agree that it can't continue like that though. At any rate, tuition costs are at least in part a product of supply and demand. If the government stops subsidizing it, prices will go down. If fewer people pursue a college education, costs will go down. Personally, I think universities will adapt but I guess we will see.