Last week, as I sat at the park with a friend before moving back to St. Thomas, my friend wondered if he could just take the bar exam now and skip the thousands of dollars worth of college that stood between him and legal practice. It turns out that you have to pass law school to take the bar.

This regulation posits an increasingly controversial proposition. Exams test knowledge, but not all knowledge can be proven by an exam. Some education—education more grounded in plain facts—can be almost entirely gauged by a test grade. For some more mechanical subjects, such as traffic law or factory operations, studying for the test is studying the subject. For other subjects, such as literature and philosophy, studying for the test is failing to properly study the subject.

As a larger percentage of the population receives college degrees, the value of a degree decreases. Throw in easy and cheap access to information and education via the Internet, and the value of a university education becomes increasingly questionable. It seems as though many treat college education as no different than trade education—attending four-year programs merely because it is the “thing to do” and the four years of trade preparation accompany a robust social life.

College life is too expensive to be no different than trade preparation with parties. And if society treats college differently from habit alone, then it treats it differently from a bad habit.

I do not mean to say that attending college is a bad decision; however, there are cases where the costs of a university education may outweigh its benefits. Some might have more prudently chosen to attend a trade school or enter their career straight out of high school. College arguably starts students at higher positions in the workforce, but it also starts students four years later. During those lost four years, high school graduates—through diligent effort—could have worked their way up without the overwhelming cost of college. Much of trade education doubtlessly takes place on the job for college graduates anyway.

All that said, I think college has a few advantages over its cheaper, more fact-based alternatives. As students at St. Thomas, we would be well-advised to recognize these benefits so that we may avoid paying for them without capitalizing on them. Many benefits, such as the career development programs and networking opportunities at St. Thomas, are especially useful; however, there are two aspects of university life that are entirely unique to the college experience.

First, access to professors. Never again will college students be able to access such an array of experts from all different subjects. When else could someone arrange a conversation between an expert in neurology, philosophy, biology and theology with minimal explanation or effort? The experience and wisdom they can impart from years in their respective field is invaluable.

Second, leisure time. Once upon a time, most great works of our civilization—from the writings of Jane Austen to the discoveries of Newton—came from a recognized leisure class. Though society has lost such a structured leisure class, it perpetually initiates and graduates members to and from a leisure class of sorts—that is, four-year college life. This four-year period provides access to a tradition of inspired works from which many more may come.

Some may rightly judge that college is not worthwhile for their aspirations. So long as we deem college education worthwhile, however, we might as well accept its benefits rather than treat college as no more than really fun and really expensive test preparation.

Elliot Polsky can be reached at pols4319@stthomas.edu.