"I could have learned this baseline material in less than two years of study."
Really? In my experience, its really difficult to say how long it would have taken you to learn something in a different fashion after you've already learnt it.
For example, take algebra. I remember really struggling with algebra. For the longest time, I just could not wrap my head around the fact that a letter could represent any number. Looking back, of course, algebra seems terribly simple. Yeah, with the benefit of hindsight, I can say that algebra is simple and it could be learnt in two weeks. However, I certainly would not have said so before I learnt algebra or during my learning. How much of this (possibly unconscious) revisionism is going in the mind of the author?
That said, I never really did agree with the stereotypical "College is there to make you a well rounded individual," view. That sort of thing may have been true in the 18th Century, when those who went to college were largely independently wealthy and could afford to bother with classes unrelated to any trade or skill. I, on the other hand, am not independently wealthy. Every class I take that doesn't contribute to my professional skill level is a waste of my money and (more importantly) my time. Unlike a landed aristocrat, I value both. I wish colleges would too.
Really? In my experience, its really difficult to say how long it would have taken you to learn something in a different fashion after you've already learnt it.
For example, take algebra. I remember really struggling with algebra. For the longest time, I just could not wrap my head around the fact that a letter could represent any number. Looking back, of course, algebra seems terribly simple. Yeah, with the benefit of hindsight, I can say that algebra is simple and it could be learnt in two weeks. However, I certainly would not have said so before I learnt algebra or during my learning. How much of this (possibly unconscious) revisionism is going in the mind of the author?
That said, I never really did agree with the stereotypical "College is there to make you a well rounded individual," view. That sort of thing may have been true in the 18th Century, when those who went to college were largely independently wealthy and could afford to bother with classes unrelated to any trade or skill. I, on the other hand, am not independently wealthy. Every class I take that doesn't contribute to my professional skill level is a waste of my money and (more importantly) my time. Unlike a landed aristocrat, I value both. I wish colleges would too.