What is the point of school?

[PonyGirl93]

Inspired by another thread, I am working on some soul-searching. I am an idealist, but have become disillusioned with the reality of formal education.

What say you? What do you hope to gain from college that you couldn't gain otherwise, beyond just a degree? Would you be doing the same thing even if the degree served no purpose in your life?

*snort* "working on some soul-searching"... left-brainer

Wellp, what I personally hope to gain from college is ultimately knowledge. I feel like there are a lot of things that I need to know going into the CJ field that books will do an okay job of introducing me to. Quite possibly not as well as the field (in fact, quite likely), but who really takes a 17 y.o. onto the field? Might as well get a jumpstart. Besides, I was really, painfully, bored with high school... Studying law-ish stuff is way more interesting

The side bonus is that employers like to see those little BA, BS, MA, etc. initials :p

In previous life mindsets, when I was planning to be a journalist, speech therapist, or psychologist, among others, I hoped to get knowledge and/or feedback. Particularly with journalism, I wanted to get the specific critique of more knowledgeable people than myself on how I could improve.