1. Make college very expensive
Most public universities aren't that expensive. UCLA, for example, is $15,700 per year. Is that worth it? Well, let's consider what you get-- UCLA runs on the quarter system (10-week terms plus a week for final exams) and your average student takes 4 classes per quarter at 3 hours per week. That's approx. 396 hours of direct education or examination per year, so if you want to break it down to the simplest cost-per-hour for education, it's $40/hour. Of course, there's much more expense that goes into the education that the instructor. There are the buildings and their maintenance, the utilities, the physical infrastructure of the campus (pipes, conduits, roads, walkways, etc.) and its maintenance, the landscaping, and all of the administrative work that goes into managing the extremely variable schedules, goals, and actions of 50,000 people on a single campus.
When you look at the whole picture, the cost of the university is pretty darn defensible.
Where I find the most egregious expense is in the cost of housing near major universities. All around these schools, you'll find a mass of investors (big and small, corporate and mom & pop) who buy up all the housing, turn it into rentals, and crank up the rent at every single opportunity. Food and housing is expected to be around $20,000 for a UCLA undergraduate this coming year-- and "housing" implies a shared bedroom among other shared bedrooms of an apartment or house.
This is why college campuses put so much work into building on-campus housing for their students and why some campuses (like UC Irvine) house the majority of their faculty on campus.
2. Teach very little, build no usable experience
While there's a modicum of truth here, this the opinion of someone who knows nothing about universities. Honestly, a theater major will not have many job prospects after college by comparison to a civil engineering major. But, the arts are worthwhile and one's education at a major university is REQUIRED to be more than their major. History, math, writing, sciences, etc. -- those all take up ~1.5-2.0 years of a college education regardless of major as "breadth" courses or "general ed."
And then there's whole idea of "translatable experience". A person can go to school for a Computer Science degree, not actually like the exploitative patterns of the corporate world, and simply choose not to pursue the use of their degree in their career. Does that mean he's a useless human being? Of course not. There are MANY jobs out there that just require someone with an analytical mind to make/find solutions which those CS skills will directly benefit.
People with philosophy or English backgrounds tend to go into contracts, law, and policy because they're taught the importance of words, logic, meaning, and secondary effects. People with sociology degrees often move toward working with and for people in need. They use their education in more developed ways than simply being taught how to put a round thing in a round hole so that when they graduate they can put round things in round holes very quickly indeed.
I will say, thought, that too few students seek out on-campus jobs during their undergraduate careers. Yes, MANY do, but I think at least 80% of students should hold a campus job for at least 3 months prior to graduation. Mentorship, good wages, resume building, adjustable schedule, etc. It's hard to match that after graduation.
3. Make every graduate believe they're worth six figures out of the gate
I don't know how many undergraduates you speak with daily, but I speak to at least 20. None of them have the expectation of getting a 6-digit salary right after graduation. Most of them are painfully cognizant of the financial future that's been created for them and most are just hoping to be able to make rent.
For those that DO hold out for higher pay, that's their choice and hopefully mom and dad support them in that choice.
I've had significantly better luck hiring people who want to learn on their own, and providing them everything I can to help.
We have had very different experiences. My 20 years of professional life have shown that people with a 4-year degree from a brick-and-mortar school tend to be those people that are able to learn on their own and will only ever ask for help when they're stuck. The ruggedness or grit of the person comes out in their work experience and interview as well.
