"it is universities themselves that have undermined the worth of the education..."

[sakky]

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Should we really assume that the coursework was not challenging in this case? Perhaps Zuckerberg simply was ahead of the curriculum, particularly considering that he made many practical applications of his knowledge at his time at Harvard (although Facemash wasn’t particularly practical). I don’t view these accomplishments as failures of the curricula, considering that you’re supposed to apply your knowledge to the world (if you don’t, then college really was a waste of time).

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<p>In that case, Zuck could have presumably taken a more challenging curriculum. After all, Harvard offers a slew of graduate coursework in a wide range of technical topics. Harvard also offers full cross-registration with MIT, with its abundance of some of the most vaunted engineering coursework in the world. Even somebody as talented as Zuck could have surely found as much challenging coursework as his heart would desire. After all, there are certain notorious CS courses at MIT that have baffled even many of the best programmers in the world. </p>

<p>But he didn’t do that. That speaks to one the key issues of the article - many college students are frankly not really in college because of the curriculum. They are primarily there for the social environment, the networking, the brand name, and the extracurricular activities/hobbies. But not really for the educational curriculum. In other words, for many students, colleges are not really academic institutions but rather are merely modern-day finishing schools. </p>

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This seems pretty unrealistic. Even people who are in love with academics like hobbies and extracurricular activities. People do these for interest, and not out of pure boredom (I’m excluding things done out of necessity, which are representative of other issues)

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<p>They may engage in hobbies for interest but surely they don’t have time to essentially devote themselves fulltime to those interests. Or at least, they shouldn’t be. The first version of Facebook was officially founded in Feb 2004 and grew rapidly from that point onwards. But Zuck didn’t officially withdraw from Harvard until months later, despite the fact that he was basically working full-time on Facebook during that semester. </p>

<p>To put the situation in a starker light, Harvard is an elite university that presumably offers an elite educational experience. How many elite employers out there would allow an employee to basically slack off for months at a time without repercussions while devoting his true energies to what is supposed to be a personal hobby? You pull that stunt at an elite consulting or investment banking firm - which many Harvard graduates aspire to join - and you’ll be fired. </p>

<p>You might try to rebut that a job is not the same as attending college. That’s exactly right, and is precisely the point that the author of the article was making - that the college experience for too many students involves merely biding their time while putting in relatively little effort into their studies, as many college curricula are undemanding. As the author said: “Even a 40-hour workweek would be a step up from what many students are asked to do now.”</p>