Any other hackers totally disgusted by the state of education? On one hand, you have "for profit" schools like those documented here. At best, these are a sli

Any other hackers totally disgusted by the state of education? On one hand, you have "for profit" schools like those documented here. At best, these are a slippery slope. The fact that they are "for profit" doesn't scare me so much, but the predatory marketing and questionable value do. Bottom line, I would never attend one in current form and would take anyone unable to see through the facade with a heavy grain of salt while hiring. On the other, you have traditional state and established private schools. The problems are myriad here as well. Costs continue to rise and most are hurting for money and have practically become "for profit". The danger of tenure means that quality can and often is lackluster. From personal experience, many professors are more interested in themselves and forget that the primary mission is the development of students. I've found that many college professors are down right awful at conveying their subject matter to students. All in all, it's a hundreds of years old bureaucracy with little oversight and questionable relevance to the 21st century. I think the real crime is the expectation that everyone in America needs a college education. There is certainly value in pursuing the standard liberal arts curriculum; it pushes you to explore a wide area and develop at least some analytical and argumentative skills. Whether everyone is cut out for this study is another matter. It is a mistake to assume that the worlds needs such a large quantity of generalists. My intuition points to quite the opposite. Technology will continue to push complexity farther and farther into all walks of life. What is really needed is the ability to quickly assimilate knowledge and separate wheat from chaff (i.e. throw out the constant stream of bullshit that society and marketing throw at us). Most coursework focuses on quite the opposite by requiring rote memorization and prepackaged knowledge from the professor. There also seems to be a growing trend of disdain for good, honest work -- the thankless jobs that allow us knowledge workers to exist. It is deceitful to perpetuate that everyone is capable of everything and just because they don't have a degree are inferior. Society requires all sorts of people to thrive. At least for building software, I can't help but think that apprenticeships and mentoring would do a lot more for software quality than four years of expensive daycare that most degree programs are. Disclaimer: I've just finished my Junior year as a CS major at a small public military college. All in all, the best thing I gotten are a bunch of really good friends and networking opportunities. Those that weren't programming on their own prior to entering the CS program are going to be seriously disadvantaged in the market place. I'm curious what other startup junkies have to say.