<p>Oh, the students could get good jobs without attending college (if a BA wasn’t an arbitrary requirement of most jobs). But most students attend good colleges not because they want a job, but because they want an educational experience. It instills flexibility, critical thinking, writing, and researching skills, yes, but it also allows people to be educated. And education is a sign of the upper-class. You can make a lot of money as a blue collar service worker (e.g. a plumber) and yet still be considered “lower class” than someone who makes barely anything writing literary criticism. Education isn’t solely a way for the upper-class to oppress the lower class of course (I’m not a Palinesque anti-intellectual populist), but it is associated with higher class status, for better or worse. In addition, it’s simply fulfilling for those with an intellectual bent, those who love knowledge for knowledge’s sake.</p>