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TinyViolins I'm sorry that you had that experience.
I had exactly the opposite, but I was always hungry to learn, and still love it.
There is no way I could have gotten the same level of education & cognitive advantages elsewhere; being taught by leaders in various fields gives one access to insights which are not found on every corner, in every town, or even every college.
Generalizing your experience is unfair; your sweeping statements are meant to preclude all opposition by purporting to show "the truth" about college.
The truth is that one actually *does* reap what one sows,in terms of getting more out of courses / material with which one has engaged, earnestly. I saw a lot of people even at my own elite institution who were not terribly serious about coursework or with a thirst for knowledge, and it showed in how they crammed, retained little, and truly understood even less.
If one is going to go THAT route, better to get a vocational training in a far briefer certificate program, rather than tie up a slot which might be filled with a serious student.