It is useful to distinguish between two issues -- the usefulness of a college education and the cost of said education. The costs of a college education in the

It is useful to distinguish between two issues -- the usefulness of a college education and the cost of said education. The costs of a college education in the US today are completely unjustifiable IMHO and I agree with those who say that there surely must be better use for your money. On the other hand, it seems that dismissing college education itself qua education is a bit like throwing the baby out with the bath water. Let's leave aside the question of whether a college education improves your critical thinking -- I claim that a good college education properly trains you in the fundamentals that you need to master before going on to doing greater things. The obvious caveat is that there are a whole bunch of vocations for which such training has little or no value -- I get that. But do we really want to create a society where a whole generation has little or no training to invent, for example, the next breakthrough transistor technology?