What a college degree should require/Is college "worth it"?

Is college worth it? Probably not, as analyzed here and here. A college education, completed at the full "list price" of hundreds if not thousands of colleges today, comes at staggering cost, both in terms of the amount one pays to receive that degree yet also from the lost opportunity of income for the four years spent on campus rather than in the labor force.

I wrote "received" rather than "earned" for a reason, as colleges have become quite comfortable at claiming that college should be an affordable opportunity for anyone, regardless of their proven academic progress to date or their preparedness to complete a rigorous curriculum, and that begs the question: Are all college degrees based on a rigorous curriculum? And another: If everyone deserves to get into and attend college regardless of their educational outcomes to date, can't they then also claim that they deserve a diploma, regardless of having demonstrated valid proof of having developed or acquired essential knowledge and (critical thinking) skills needed to contribute to society in their career and their civic responsibilities that stem from these rights to higher education, paid for by someone else, namely parents and taxpayers.

According to "College doesn't need to take four years," even if we assume that the four-year education is substantial, the work could be done in three years rather than in four. yet most people know that that assumption -- the assumption that a college degree is "worth it" -- has become problematic, other than to those who make rhetorical claims as to the value of a liberal arts education, those who claim college should be simply be a time to nurture a love of learning, and those who claim that a college degree is the panacea to unemployment or the golden ticket to a 'meaningful life.'

It's not that easy to solve, simply by cutting the time invested by 25%, especially insight of the fact that students don't invest enough of their time in studying while they are in college for four years. The requirements to enter college and to complete a degree need to be made more rigorous, not more 'inclusive.' Require demonstrated aptitude for learning and then demonstrated accomplishment of educational objectives, not just courses and grades.

And it is not just a matter of shortening the time towards a degree.

College Doesn’t Need to Take Four Years - WSJ.pdf

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When we college toured St Andrew’s with Jane in 2013, a fellow American woman and her daughter were on the tour and asked when the daughter would have to take her general education requirements. I thought that the admissions director was going to have a stroke just trying to not laugh out loud.

Were high schools to do a decent job of really preparing students for college, including four years each of solid math, science, English and history courses, some skills courses, e.g., writing, speaking, presenting, numerous AP courses, and multiple standardized tests to measure both achievement and aptitude for college, they’d not need general education courses repeated in college, let alone a handful of electives.

St Andrew’s had no interest in a bloated American high school curriculum with inflated grades; they asked only for SAT scores and the AP score in the student's chosen discipline, along with a 500 word essay. They had no faith in high school grades or courses. Scotland had it right with three years for an undergraduate degree.