Personally, I found both STEM and social science classes at University to be fairly useless. I went back and took STEM classes in an area I had self-studied, ba

Personally, I found both STEM and social science classes at University to be fairly useless. I went back and took STEM classes in an area I had self-studied, based on the amount of people who claimed that people who self-study miss a lot. I didn't find that to be the case at all, and was surprised at how much the classes felt like a waste of time. Going back when I was older, I was also very curious about the education system in general and would often survey my classmates to see how much they were retaining semester to semester. The results weren't great. I should add, this was at a University that ranks fairly highly (top 20 or so) in this area. The market might demand someone with experience in a certain field, but that doesn't mean that college is a useful way of preparing them for it. Likewise, with the humanities I've learned much more outside of the University setting than inside of it. I never delved into primary sources or academic papers when I was an undergraduate, but often do both now that I'm out (as a hobby, not for work). I would say that I knew almost nothing about historiography coming out of college, and almost all my knowledge of it is from self-study after graduation. People talk about the importance of discussions, but discussion groups I've had outside of university have been much more fruitful than inside - a group of people with ages ranging from teens to retirees, who've had a variety of life experiences and come from different countries is going to be a more varied discussion in my experience than a group of 19 year old college students. I think people really have to start discussing what goals we're actually trying to achieve, if college is the best way of achieving, and what other alternatives might be available. In my experience, the college system is a pretty poor system that has survived as long as it has because of inertia.