Over the past year I have become increasingly vocal about my critiques on the education system in the United States. While the public, K-12 school system deserves a pi-length essay detailing its shortcomings, I want to focus on what is referred to as 'higher-learning' or the university-model today. Although it would be easy to call into question the funding source of public universities, the ever-expanding number of government employees on the payroll and so on, I want to put those arguments aside and focus on only one: The current university paradigm is an inefficient method of learning!
College seems to be incredibly inefficient in regards to money, time, and retained knowledge. The average in-state, public four-year university tuition costs for the United States in 2016 is $36,556 for an undergraduate degree. That's tuition alone! That doesn't factor in materials or books "needed" or if it takes an individual longer than 4 years to complete their chosen degree (only 36% of students graduate in 4 years!). The average out-of-state, public four-year university tuition costs for an undergraduate degree in 2016 is $91,832! Price alone, however, tells us nothing. The real question is: is that too high? YES! When considering the vast amount of free information available today (to name a few):
Khan Academy
Free Code Camp
100s of MOOCs
MITx
Wikipedia
Mises.org Library
Google Scholar
Econtalk.org
Steemit
And perhaps the greatest university on Earth: YOUTUBE
I don't see how one can justify the enormous cost of attending college. I don't see the value. What about STEM majors, one might ask? I haven't heard a compelling argument against the notion apprenticeship-style programs or positions wouldn't be more effective. Imagine, rather than paying thousands of dollars to acquire an undergraduate degree, then thousands more to get graduate level qualifications, as many of these fields require, and instead getting paid to be an understudy!
A doctor's career path is roughly as follows: 4 years undergraduate, four years med school, four years residency. Is there not a more efficient method than 8 years of academia and then essentially a four-year apprenticeship? What is the opportunity cost of attending university? What else could students spend all that money on? Perhaps starting a business, traveling the world, or perhaps hanging out and reading as they discover their sense of self?
Then there's the matter of time. "The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it," wrote Henry David Thoreau; I agree. For a standard, undergraduate degree, it is generally expected one can graduate in four years. Four years is a long time! I have little doubt, the vast majority of individuals can learn everything they have retained from their college years in far less than four years via youtube and the other free sources I mentioned above.
Making this more troubling is that only 36% of students even graduate in four years! The average undergraduate degree takes six years to complete, as of 2013! I assumed that number was skewed upward so I investigated the median. The median graduation-length for public universities in 2008 was 55 months! I did not learn enough in college to justify the four years I spent there. Most individuals spend even more time in academia than I did, and I can't reconcile it.
Now let's take a quick look at knowledge retention. The argument behind college is a noble one: a more well-educated humanity produces better outcomes. I will accept this hypothesis. The question then becomes: is the university system producing well-educated people?
In my dialogues with my friends and family, most readily admit they retained little to nothing they were taught from a college classroom. Indeed, most of what individuals retain is often their activities outside the confines of a classroom. The highest retention rates are on things individuals seek out to learn for themselves out of their own curiosity, rather than those things learned solely for testing purposes. I have yet to find evidence classroom-based knowledge is well-retained. The most impactful learning experiences are hands on--to do and see! Without the stresses and scheduling difficulties college causes, imagine the wonderful ways people could use that critical time of growth actually doing things of value instead of being tucked away in a classroom.
I myself have an undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin. I enjoyed my time in college a great deal and grew tremendously! But my growth was primarily from activities having nothing to do with classroom, and nearly everything to do with being in a new city, having the ability to completely organize my day for the first time, meeting new, introspective individuals, and having amazing and thought-provoking conversations. In the 4 years post college (what I like to call my freedom degree), I have learned even more from exploring ideas and the world first-hand! The things I learned during my time attending college weren't from my time in college; what I learned happened in the space between classes.
I recognize the idea of college is a noble one. But noble ideas are just that and nothing more. One must investigate whether the end-goal is being achieved. I do not believe college is creating well-educated and well-rounded individuals. And even if college is meeting this noble notion, it is doing so in such an inefficient manner as to make all achievements irrelevant. Don't be fooled into thinking college has a monopoly on education. I believe...it's time to break the chain. Be braver than I and recognize the illusion.
To Bernie I say, education is already free you jackass! ;)