The cost which bothers me the most about the current university landscape is the amount of potential we as a society waste.

So much of our population goes straight from high school to a 4 year college program. That's while they're between the ages of 18 and 22.

Unless you're studying to be a doctor, lawyer, nurse, engineer, etc. then that's 4 years of lost productivity.

I think most professions could be trained for in under a year + on the job training.

Even if the argument is that college is largely social growth for the student it's insanely expensive if we need 4 years to do it.