http://www.tickld.com/x/angry-graduate-just-wrote-this-letter-to-his-u niversity-its-hard-not-to-agree-

Seriously everything I have learned in college I could have learned online for free. I thought universities would be about learning new skills and APPLYING them, instead it's a waste of time unless you're a science major (I am a math major). Instead it's watching some old guy who can barely speak English go over Powerpoint slides, and I go to a very good university too (UCSB).

Seriously it would be much better to either make college a lot cheaper (can't though - thanks federal government) or make it more practical. For example, if you're a biology major, you focus on biology, rather than all that other BS they want you to learn (to make money). College should get you prepared but it doesn't.

Lol of course not. That's why I stopped going to university.
I got my 3 year training on the Job and now I'm not only more experienced and more qualified than any bachelor or master, thanks to cisco certificates I'm even more decorated.
Sad though that employers don't know how the world works and will always prefer people with a useless university degree.

EXACTLY! The jobs I want ALL require a Bachelor's degree. Otherwise I'd just say F it. What's your job?

Network admin and soon consultant in IT security.

It's nice that in germany we have job degrees that are also  well accepted. Most job requirements read "bachelor or comparable degree in this field".

I can't really blame them though. With a university student you have at least guarantee that he's not completely retarded. You don't have that guarantee with any other degree. Which is exactly what they're looking for.

It's absolutely not about WHAT you learn at university. It's about THAT you learn it and on your own and under pressure. Those are the qualities employers are looking for. You can easily mold a college graduate. With anyone else it's always hit or miss.

Huh, students holding Master's degrees usually fare better (just as bachelor's holders, on the balance, do better than high school graduates).

I'll defend the value of a well-rounded liberal arts education to the death, however. I agree colleges should focus more on making sure their graduates get skills that are relevant in their field (interestingly in my field of International Relations, its only now in grad school that i'm getting courses that are teaching me actual skills. My stats class taught me SPSS, i had a course that taught me how to make grants, and another about humanitarian response procedures as well as a basic overview of public administration. Next semester i get policy analysis and development administration, for two), but at the same time we are not mere economic animals. The knowledge we command should be greater than what we need to survive.

Of course, if you are the kind who learns better outside a classroom environment (i really don't, myself) then you certainly can make yourself intellectually well-rounded without having to go to college.

Yeah it seems it's grad school where you finally learn actual skills that are worthwhile. Which is why I think they should cut off the first 2 years for a Bachelor's so you should be able to get a Master's more quickly.

I mean my first 2 years I can honestly use fingers from one hand to show how much I learned. Heck the professors hardly even teach anymore they just read off a Powerpoint slide and have you do homework online (if they give it) or the exams are just regurgitating info, rather than applying what you've learned. For example one of the most pointless classes I took was Psychology.... I mean psychology is so important and intersting but school made it so boring. I thought we were gonna do cool stuff like experiments and learn how to diagnose people but instead it was history and about the experiments. Yawn. Not to mention the professor was extremely boring and didn't look like he wanted to be there (to be fair, I am at a research university and teaching 300+ kids the basic of basics of psychology is pretty maddening).

But I think if we are gonna keep college the way it is (learn info and regurgitate it for tests) then they should just give us the test. We can learn everything online then take the test. Get a class done in like 2 weeks.

It doesn't take much pre-college research to learn what majors don't actually teach practical, tangible, and in-demand job skills.

In college right now for Math. 3rd year and I'd say atleast 60% of my classes were pretty darn useless.

yes and no. 4 years is a long time in our fast-moving job market.

The problem is college isn't a very good learning environment either. When the curve to get an A is 70% how can you say the people learned? I had a class where if you had 45% you passed. The people who do good in those classes are the same type of people who will do good anyway.