Comment by AnIdiotOnTheNet | Hacker News Reader

Comment by AnIdiotOnTheNet | Hacker News Reader

AnIdiotOnTheNet

At this point I'm really wondering what the ostensible purpose of Universities is, as opposed to their true purpose of wealth signaling.

We live in an age where university level lectures and materials are available for free. Why are we paying a ton of money to obtain a limited slot that allows us to show up at a building for the same lectures and materials?

Is it personal attention? Almost certainly not, but even if it was that can be had on the open market for far less cost.

Access to specialized equipment? Well maybe, but surely there's a more efficient solution there.

Is it certification? Because in my experience, as well as that of many others, the degrees don't say much of anything about competence so what good are they? Besides, it's again a really expensive way to certify people and surely there must be a better method.

One explanation I've heard is insurance - a degree is supposed to prevent someone from making mistakes so egregious that the person ends up in a life of poverty. As you pointed out, degrees are overwhelmingly received by people who already have some family wealth, so it's easy to sell university as the cause of those higher lifetime earnings.

In my opinion there are a few reasons to attend college:

1. You legitimately want to expand human knowledge beyond what exists. This should be the ultimate goal of a PHD. Whether or not this produces important output (in the capitalistic sense, aka is profitable) is secondary to attaining the new knowledge.

2. You want to attain high level knowledge of a subject AND the best way you learn is by having a strict course regiment with a decent teacher-to-student ratio.

3. You just want that check mark on your resume when you try to get a job.

#1 isn't about getting a job. #2 and #3 have some overlap in that the ultimate goal of both tends to be securing a job. The difference between them is how an individual learns material. Some people can read a book, or view youtube lectures, then take some tests and learn sufficiently that way (#3). But some people require #2 style learning.

But let's be honest, the vast majority of people attending college are for #2 or #3. Meaning, it is ultimately about getting a job. So as long as a job in a desired fields requires a degree, people will essentially be required to get them. The trend is recent years seems to be the dramatic split between #2 and #3 style learning.

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