You could learn a lot of what you just mentioned for nothing at the Khan Academy (http://www.khanacademy.org/ http://www.khanacademy.org/). If it's the overall

You could learn a lot of what you just mentioned for nothing at the Khan Academy (http://www.khanacademy.org/ http://www.khanacademy.org/). If it's the overall value proposition you want to compare, college blows on a cost per unit of knowledge acquired for someone who really wants to learn. There's an entirely different experience--I'll grant you that. But is that worth thousands a semester?