Walter Bright wrote:
Nick Sabalausky wrote:
Well, when it comes to college, what you're paying for are the classes
and the degree (and, of course, books/room/board). So I'm certainly
going to measure it's worth with that in mind. Having a dinner with
Carl Segan, as great as he was, is hardly worth $100,000, unless
you're filthy stinking rich.
You could view it as paying for classes and a degree, and some colleges
certainly operate it that way. I look at it as more of paying for the
environment, much like I'd pay entry to a nice buffet filled with
delicious treats to choose from <g>.
I think you really are paying for the degree--the environment is just a
perk, assuming you're lucky enough to be at a school that has such an
environment.
The first university I attended (I went to three altogether) was a
highly regarded school, particularly for their engineering program. One
evening I was at a party and brought up some marginally intellectual
topic in conversation. Someone standing nearby turned to me and said
"dude shut up, we're not in class." That sadly typified the environment
at that particular university. Perhaps not surprisingly, I transferred
away not long after.
The second university was closer to home, smaller, and had a more
study-oriented environment overall. But it was also less challenging,
and didn't offer a single evening class. I got a job in R&D while
looking for a job one summer and after a semester or two of juggling a
full-time job and day classes with an hour commute between the two I
couldn't take it any more and dropped out. It was a decent school
overall, but certainly didn't have the kind of environment you're
talking about.
Finally, I decided to go back to school and finish my degree maybe six
years ago, and basically had to start from scratch. I went to a local
community college to cover the distributional requirements and then
transferred to a state university. A large segment of the students
commuted and many of them worked, which may help explain why most of
them seemed there for the degree rather than the education. But many of
the professors were excellent and as I was some 15 years older than most
of the students I didn't really care about the student environment
anyway--I spent most of my time talking to the teachers instead.
I'm not sure if my experiences are typical, but I can say with
confidence that I've never been in an environment like you've described.
If I had I probably would have enjoyed school a lot more, and may not
have taken 18 years to finish my undergrad degree :-) I'm still
thinking about going back for my masters and possibly a phd, but
certainly not because of any fond memories I have of my time in college.
