liberal brainwashing?
debt?
STDs?
what else?
The first thing you learn is to not ask questions like that. People who say they don't need it don't know what it is that they missed. Its the only time in life where you will get exposed to a wide range of topics, ideas, and people that will bear fruit in unexpected ways throughout your life. It gives you an enriched view of your world through art, science, math, philosophy, religion, literature, music, sociology, statistics, anthropology, language, history, etc. that most people will never brush up against in the normal course of daily life. It makes you a more astute consumer of the flood of information that swirls around us in professional and private life.
And armed with this, you will do much better at whatever vocation you choose for having a broader view of the world and all its implications. St. John's of Annapolis has a curriculum focused on the great books -- read in Greek and Latin. They say that when you come out, you are not prepared for anything but are prepared for everything.
Studies show that what you get in the classroom is pretty much the same at any school -- there is a general mix of great and disinterested teachers at Howard Community College as well as Yale. But its the out of classroom experience that makes the difference -- hanging around with smart people of widely varying backgrounds and participating in a world of activities aimed just for that population -- things like concerts, film festivals, art exhibits, minor sports [when I went to college you had to be able to swim to graduate], design competitions, visiting lecturers, and other parts of a wider society.
All of this is missed in the current rush to on-line education. I taught management courses in two major universities and when one went to a "distance learning" model it was amazing how much was lost if only because there was no student-to-student interaction.
And yes, there is a decidedly liberal bias but if that tests your beliefs -- and you can hold fast to them -- then all the better.
Someone once asked me if I knew anyone who graduated from Harvard and I had to say "no." He replied "that's because they are doing other things."
So call me a traditionalist if you want but I don't apologize for it.
