Why does college have any remaining value?

And how to access it for free/less.

College used to function as a result of the actual scarcity of knowledge. 

Remember when you had to go to the library to find out who wrote Don Quixote?

The internet has changed our lives so drastically that our institutions are still catching up. Imagine if I asked you in 1980, “what do you think would happen to universities if I made information free, available to anyone, and then I put a supercomputer in every pocket connected to every other person’s supercomputer?” 

“Uh, they would go away, probably. Why have universities if information is free?” 

Exactly. But they didn’t go away. 

What value do universities still offer? Where can we get that for less than 100K?

Colleges are selling out their cultural cache

College campuses are beautiful places where kids are hypothetically meant to go and commit themselves to learning something they couldn’t learn anywhere else. 

Universities hold a place in our cultural imagination that’s genuinely hard to replace.

It’s too bad they are selling themselves out.

In our essay Should Your Kid Go to College, we argued universities stick around, among other things, because of the phenomenon of accreditation. An accredited university can give a student a credential, which is shorthand for strangers to guess at your competence. For a credential to be valuable, it has to be scarce. If everyone has a degree, no one has a degree. Similar to how diamond mines work. Diamonds are abundant, but the mines only distribute a small amount to keep values high.

If universities wanted to keep the value of their credentialing high, they would: 

1. Grade on a curve (not everyone can pass, even if everyone learns)

2. Raise tuition

3. Increase rigor

4. Raise standards for admission

Universities should use this strategy. 

Instead, they’re trying to bring in more students and make more money. 

More and more highly-paid college administrators didn't want to turn students away just to “keep the value of degrees high.” More students, and the easy availability of student loan money, funded by their bloated departments and salaries, are too tempting.

Administrators rake in the profits, while colleges have completely lost sight of their value proposition.

As an artifact of the process of devaluation, we have “grade inflation.” The average GPA in 1980 was 3.1. Now it’s approaching 4.0. That’s the average. 

Meanwhile, the universities have completely lost sight of the anchor of their value proposition: giving knowledge to young people. Not just teaching theory, but really preparing people to enter the world. 

Remember?

Effectively, they are in a situation where the universities can’t help but print more of their own money, thus devaluing their own currency. They could have kept their relevance in the information age – if only they could keep their hand out of the cookie jar. 

So, we find ourselves in our current situation: the degree's value is falling, while tuition keeps rising. 

The university’s huge cultural cache can only hold out for so long. 

Of course, alternatives are here and growing. Today, there are other ways to enter the world as a young person – covered in more detail here. 

After we posted that piece, a reader pointed out to us on Substack that there's more to the college experience than just credentialing. Greg suggested the value of college also includes, "structure, community, mentorship, hands-on practice, fun."

He had a great point. Thanks, Greg. 

Structure, community, mentorship, and fun

Is it good that kids can effectively delay adulthood for an extra four years? 

If they’re being mentored, pushed, and given some useful structures to the knowledge they’re already curious about, yes. Increasingly, though, that’s not the case. 

Instead of a boot camp for kids to learn to be adults, we have shifted to daycare for overgrown toddlers to air their constant grievances to the administration, who dare not question them for fear of losing their parent’s money. 

In other words, by selling out their actual value proposition, colleges are increasingly no longer a place to find a good mentor and commit themselves to the rigorous pursuit of knowledge. It still exists, but not as much.

In all, yes, by some miracle, there is value left on the campus. That is the place where most people meet life-long friends. It is a place to find mentors. It provides a place for young people to semi-structure their own lives. It is fun. 

But, the value will continue to decline. The business strategy of the university, as laid out in the section above, is one of degradation. Less at some places. More at others.

Our advice to give is a little vague because there are so many factors. It depends on each kid and each situation. But here are some ways to look at it: 

1. Consider the cheaper option over the “elite” university 

2. Consider a more traditional university (they exist)

3. Research the reputation of specific departments at universities

4. Consider other avenues to find community and mentorship outside of college 

5. Help your kid develop their own structure 

6. Research college alternative programs

College also offers clarity of choice. “Go to college” is easy advice. We recognize that.

Now, that’s no longer a luxury most parents care to rely on. As we wake up to what’s happening, we also have to forge a unique path in the world. 

Thanks for reading,

Taylor + rebelEducator team

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P.S.

What we’re looking at:

Fernando Cao Zheng @thefernandocz

Why are you struggling to take action? Because your education system PUNISHES failiure. Becoming an entrepreneur/learning any skill REWARDS failure. Unlearn the idea that you have to have all the answers before you can take action.

Austin Scholar #48: How to Teach Kids to Write Better Than ChatGPT

How Can We Make School Learning Replayable?

Quotes we’re pondering:

“The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.” — Plato

“The purpose of education is to give to the body and to the soul all the beauty and all the perfection of which they are capable.” — Plato

“If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.” — Plato