Originally posted by gadget51
I may be misunderstanding a little but I have to disagree that going to a 'crappy' college or uni will net you less knowledge. This would be partly due to your own work ethic - or lack of same - your subject, the class sizes and resources available (although this latter could be offset by the Web resource somewhat) and of course the lecturers and their own motivations, desires, etc., etc.
Because a university has a reputation for greatness does not necessarily mean it is, as reputations are often biasedly maintained by those most likely to benefit, i.e. the university itself.
Just as an example, let's say you want to take BSc.(hons) mathematics, a 'lesser' uni may afford you much more of an individualised experience, given the small class size and thus often more approachable staff.
It was shown [a few years ago though], that a history degree from Oxford or Cambridge didn't necessarily mean you could spell or use simple grammar.
Just my thought on it, but I like sticking up for the little guy! 
Anyway, my apologies if I waffled off topic too much.
Best regards,
Mal.
I don't mean a small college or a non-famous college.
I literally meant crappy professors and assistants who don't provide you with good answers to your questions and in general explain concepts very badly. Sure, you can still make up for it on your own, but it's a lot harder than it could be.
For example, the professors and assistants at my college are light years behind Harvard's CS50, various MIT online courses, or khan academy. They might have quite a bit of knowledge but if they can't explain the concepts nicely, you're not likely to learn a lot.
I completely agree that a smaller uni might actually be beneficial, but as I said, I was not talking about size here but the quality of teaching
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I also think that if you went through the videos at khan academy (online, free videos on various subjects), you could obtain knowledge and understanding of concepts which is way superior to the knowledge that you get from regular college lectures.
It might just be my bad experience but because there are so many good online learning resources (and also books), it is sometimes hard to imagine that you could learn better via lectures.
Again, this is only my personal experience and I do also agree that even people with degrees from great universities might not have a lot of initiative or good knowledge, but of course it's possible to get through the college via shortcuts and that's usually exactly the case (cheating, studying for the bare minimum, rote memorization...).
. But experience helps as well, although IMO it is pretty overrated 
. I mean this in the sense that you don't necessarily need 10 years of experience to land a good job. If you can show someone that you can solve their problems, they'll hire you, regardless of your experience (in most cases at least, there are exceptions).
