i’m pretty satisfied with what i learned for the most part. the only thing i could say is that they could probably be even more demanding, grade-wise and i could have studied harder. but i definitely left knowing more, and that’s helped in all aspects of my life. i think the problem isn’t one of value per-say, it’s more about misaligned expectations. i went into college expecting that what it would do is make me learn things — history, literature, finance, economics, contracts (i was a business major), design, psychology, how to write better, how to think more critically. i use the perspective i gained from all of this every day. there was some job skills stuff, but i always knew i’d have to figure that part out mostly on my own. college was for the knowledge itself. in many ways, i think the grips about college sometimes seem to be an extension of the helicopter parent idea that if you pay enough money to the right people, you can guarantee yourself or your child a smooth life. instead of looking at college as an opportunity to learn more and understand more, thinking gradually shifted toward expecting college to be an admission ticket. that all they would have to do is show it at the door, and boom, entry to the better side of things (and thus the shift to private schools, under the assumption that the more expensive the ticket, the better the guaranteed life would be). but the degree is just a symbol, so if you don’t put anything behind it, it doesn’t matter, and then people who just wanted the admission ticket think they’ve been sold a bill of goods. and that comes back around to the idea that college could have been harder and demanded more from me. colleges might be lessening their own value in that regard by putting less emphasis on academic difficulty and more on making students feel good and having enjoyable amenities. but that was a response in and of itself to parents and students who only wanted to show up and get a degree rather than actually learn. so each side feeds the other.