I think the value proposition of college is completely based upon whether the learning strategy of classroom lectures followed by written tests works for you. F

I think the value proposition of college is completely based upon whether the learning strategy of classroom lectures followed by written tests works for you. For me, reading books and attempting projects are the only way I can learn effectively. Technical lectures are incredibly boring as I can't control the pacing, and many times I find they are altogether irrelevant. Technology moves at such a blistering pace that if you aren't working with the cutting edge tools on a regular basis, you are falling behind. Unfortunately, most classrooms insist on teaching with antiquated methodologies and overemphasize classroom time/testing versus building projects with modern tools. For example, I had to take a full year of Scheme, which in hindsight was helpful, but could have been done far more efficiently by me reading How to Design Programs [1] over the summer and attempting the exercises. School time could then have been used to teach modern methodologies via project work. 1. http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/HtDP2e/ http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/HtDP2e/