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<p>Exactly - but that then leads to the next question: exactly why are those students going to college, if not for an academic/intellectual endeavor? More saliently, why do we as society encourage them to go - and usually even provide taxpayer funding - for those students to go? </p>
<p>Like I said, at the average school, many - probably most - students are not particularly interested in the academics and don’t really trying to learn much of anything. They might want a degree, but don’t want to expend excessive effort to obtain that degree. Consider this thought experiment: if you offered the average student at the average college an instant college degree from their school right now at this very moment without having to study any further, how many of them would take it? Even at the very top schools, a minority of students are not highly motivated to learn and would happily take an instant degree. </p>
<p>So the question then is, why does society continue to subsidize these students?</p>