Is college the new high school?

My response to a Quora prompt:

Of course.

My mother dropped out of school after completing the sixth grade. She was able to get factory work down the street from our house. It was from this income (and my Dad’s survivor Social Security benefit) that she was able to keep a household of 3 boys and my grandmother fed, clothed, and sheltered.

Those factory opportunities are gone. So are the opportunities for most people without some college/post high school education.

As the necessity for a degree rode, so did access to those colleges and universities granting the degrees. Increased demand resulted in increased supply. The market responded by eliminating the two barriers to college access: scholarship and money. Schools sprang up that catered to students without strong academic backgrounds; diploma mills are commonplace. Loans became available to individuals whose credit scores would not usually get them funded; a gamble many took on the hope of a brighter tomorrow and the realization of the necessity to postpone dreams because of debt.

So the outcome now is that access to college is as available as high school, and the BS has replaced the high school diploma & the MS the BS.

Sadly, college has become the new high school. Once the site of halls filled with the intellectually curious, now are populated with those who attend out of an unwritten mandatory requirement.