I never said “professors” or “deans”. I mentioned higher education specifically, as an industry. It’s the same as the wedding industry, they don’t give a fuck that they sell so much stuff around the romanticism of weddings regardless of its true value.

Behold the romanticization of the diamond ring.

You just, I don’t know, you convince people in their vulnerability, in love, hey, this is what love really is, an expensive ring, venue, etc

Higher education at this point preys on the dreams of the parent/child via a financial vector.

It’s highly pathetic that such a highly regarded element of society has the same business model as a movie theater, which is roughly “now that we found the people that want the real movie experience, we get to charge them $10 for popcorn and $7 for a soda”.

Then the family walks out of the movie theater “hey we’re broke, but you really showed us the value of a real movie going experience, we’ll cherish forever”. I guess? What is this nonsense?

Part of any good experience involves not getting ripped off, on any level.

I've been out of university for a couple of decades now, but I will admit that the "business model" was bothersome even in my time. That is especially true since it is more important to the success of a person than that diamond ring is to the success of a marriage or the viewing of a movie in theatres is to an individual's enjoyment of life.

At least with your two examples of businesses preying upon the vulnerabilities of people, those vulnerabilities are entirely optional. People can, and do, choose other ways of expressing their commitment to their partners. People can, and do, find simpler (and non-commercial) ways to find pleasure in life.

That said, I also think that people have to step back and look at what they hope to gain from their post-secondary education. Let's face it, universities are institutions that largely prepare people to work in institutions (may they be academic or business). For example: you don't need to go to university to become a scientist, but you do to work as a scientist in a university and many businesses. Granted, there are exceptions to that. Your chances of becoming a medical doctor are pretty much nil without attending university.