[pascalxus]

No. They force you to learn mostly useless stuff. I can't just decide what I want to learn. Let's say I wanted to do a startup. Besides reading all the Paul Graham articles, the best way to learn how to run your own specific business is to learn by doing. School can only teach you the concepts. No, school in the world will be able to teach you which channel will generate your best customer for "your" business: only an A/B test can teach you that.

Most colleges let you choose 1 semester of real world experience. And the other 95%, is classes that you have to pick from (even if you're creating your own degree). And, in a world where jobs/careers are becoming increasingly specialized, this antiquated form of education is no longer effective for many of us.

The opportunity cost is enormous. At least 6 years of lost wages (500K+). You work for them for 6 years that they don't even pay for (not even minimum wage), and to add insult to injury, you need to pay them for it.

[skookumchuck]

> I can't just decide what I want to learn.

Sure you can. You pick the college, you pick the major.

> only an A/B test can teach you that.

You learn how to do that and how to interpret the results in college. That's what your statistics class is about.

> The opportunity cost is enormous.

My college degree paid off enormously for me. Of course, I picked a major that paid well, and carefully selected the classes to maximize my value in the workplace. I also took accounting classes in college, because running a profitable business requires knowledge of accounting.

(Most startups fail because the owners don't understand notions of profit, cash flow, balance sheets, etc.)