People who live in the real world understand that universities sell credentials, not knowledge.
A good number of universities (especially if you study math, science, or engineering) sell much more than credentials. They sell you a lot of knowledge. I don't understand how you can seriously make that statement. I learned an unbelievable amount of stuff in my four years in college, and I'm sure many other studious students did also.
If universities only sold knowledge, public libraries would be out of business. Ideally, a diploma would be a rough estimate of one's knowledge. Theoretically, a 4.0 student knows more than a 3.0 student... theoretically! Most people do not care about knowledge, they care about a piece of paper that allows them to work, make money, support their families, and finance their vices.
Many of my former EE classmates ended up going into business, consulting, banking... and I am sure it wasn't their expertise on analog VLSI or DSP that landed them the positions, it was a piece of paper with a lot of good grades that, essentially, said: "I can be an obedient worker, I will put in the long hours without questioning the status quo, and I react to carrots & sticks".
If you actually care about knowledge, you can learn a tremendous lot in 4 years, but don't assume that most people are like you, because they aren't. Except if you go to Caltech or MIT, of course, but the girls are ugly and the parties suck at such schools...
As a Ph.D. student, I can tell you that the faculty I work around are very serious about teaching. Universities are sincerely in the business of education before anything else. That is what they sell.
While some students may be more interested in getting the diploma, that doesn't reflect on the motivation of the institution.
Note that the comment vecter and I are referring to was dissing the attractiveness of MIT etc. undergraduate women.
Vecter also has a point at least WRT to Wellesley women; MIT and Wellesley have maintained a strong relationship starting from their foundings, they can enroll in classes at each other's school, there's a regular shuttle bus ... and yes, they're very nice in their own ways.
Not sure about science or engineering, but surely much advanced math knowledge can come from studying books at home, or even free off the web. Maybe you need to pay for Matlab.
A good number of universities (especially if you study math, science, or engineering) sell much more than credentials. They sell you a lot of knowledge. I don't understand how you can seriously make that statement. I learned an unbelievable amount of stuff in my four years in college, and I'm sure many other studious students did also.