Sounds like you had a bad experience with college but I think you raised a couple of good points: - college is in every way, dumped on teenagers as THE ONLY wa

Sounds like you had a bad experience with college but I think you raised a couple of good points: - college is in every way, dumped on teenagers as THE ONLY way forward Absolutely true in my experience. High schools are entirely structured around two things: standardized test performance, and pushing kids into college. If you are not a college-bound kid, you essentially don't exist. - No one is there to mature. No one is there to improve their concept of individuality. No one goes to college to learn for the sake of learning. "No one" is too strong, but I think this is true for the majority. Most people in an undergraduate program (and probably also a majority in Master's programs) are there because they think it is the path to a good job. Because that is what has been drummed into them since elementary school. Learning, expanding horizons, etc. are secondary. If most people at college were there simply for the sake of learning, enrollment would be a small fraction of what it is.