&gt; If so, this world is doomed, and within a generation will be ruled by hordes of ignorant retards. I can only hope you&#x27;re exaggerating (well, I know you&#x27;re exaggerating, the universities that matter still do vet their intake relatively rigorously).<p>By very definition most people go to universities or institutions that &quot;don&#x27;t matter&quot; in your eyes. You can&#x27;t rule out the majority of the population in a discussion about the nature of higher education just because it doesn&#x27;t fit your narrative about what college should be.<p>Moreover, to assume that everyone at top tier institutions is there or is trying hard because they are deeply passionate about learning is absolutely ridiculous. I am at a lab at MIT currently and interact with undergrads here all the time. The community has a HUGE problem with self-imposed stress over grades and course load to the point where individuals are committing suicide because they falsely believe that if they are not successful in college it will prevent them from being successful in the work place. Why do many people put themselves through this pressure? Because they know having the words MIT on their resume will get them a great job.<p>&gt; Incorrect. For 9 out of 10 professions it is not true at all.<p>I don&#x27;t know how they do things in the UK, but in the US employers want to see proof that you can do what you say you can do or that you are a serious worker when applying for a job. For a lot of industries, it&#x27;s really hard to demonstrate this when applying for a first job because you have no relevant work experience. A relevant college degree (rightly or wrongly) serves as validation for employers. They feel safer taking a chance on employing you. Even having ANY college degree shows that someone has (theoretically) validated that you can work intelligently.<p>The problem with not having a degree is that it&#x27;s very difficult to gain demonstrable domain expertise in most fields without being employed (as you lack access to resources), and most people won&#x27;t employ you until you can demonstrate some competence, leading to a situation where it&#x27;s very difficult to get your foot in the door. That&#x27;s why it&#x27;s important to have a degree; it gets your foot in the door so you can gain experience. Most people in the US who do not have college degrees or technical certifications are working poorly paid jobs. Most people go to college so that they do not have to do that, not so that they can seek enlightenment.<p>&gt; It is a filter. Doctors must conform to quite harsh endurance and resourcefulness requirements, and the more such filters applied - the better. This is not a profession for everyone (just like most other professions, really)<p>Putting someone through a 4 year arbitrary filter is a ridiculous practice which should stop. Unqualified students would wash out during the first year of medical school anyway; that should serve as the filter. Making someone rack up 80-120K in additional student debt just to go through a filtering process is absurd. A friend of mine is currently a resident and has 320K dollars of student loan debt. How is that justifiable?