I think the MOOC thing is a game changer, but only for actually learning stuff (as opposed to prestige), and mostly for stuff where it can be proven that you&#x27;ve learned it.<p>What I mean is you now have a huge variety of ways to learn STEM type stuff. When I was an undergrad, you had some topic like transistors to learn about. You had maybe 3 or 4 books with explanations, not all good. You had a lecturer, and a tutor, and your fellow students. If combined they didn&#x27;t lead you to understand the secret to transistors, you were buggered.<p>Nowadays, you have forums like stackexchange where you can get a well informed answer to some pretty obscure questions. You have a whole load of lectures from various universities as well, and you can also get a variety of books delivered wirelessly. So really if you&#x27;re ignorant about something, it&#x27;s not because you couldn&#x27;t have found a good explanation.<p>The reason I mention provable stuff is that you have certain subjects where, let&#x27;s face it, it&#x27;s easy to BS. Sure, there&#x27;s agreement that some people are better at discussing history or politics than others, but it&#x27;s just not the same as a STEM subject. There&#x27;s an xkcd about this.<p>For those subjects, I reckon no matter how smart you sound, people will give you more credit if you went to a big name school.<p>I&#x27;m still waiting for the MOOCs to have credible exams. I mean in the eyes of the public, of course. Once that happens, and I believe it can happen quickly, there will not be quite so much pressure to do a specific, old fashioned residential college education.