Is it a theory or a rant? Makes a lot more sense as a rant than a theory. It makes some massive assumptions, and for sure you are leaving out a whole generation that is currently raising the kids that will be going to college in a few years or are now. Because I'm Generation X and sure as shit none of my friends or I went to school because it was 'magical for our parents' or to 'expand our minds for the pursuit of education'.
We went so we could get a decent freaking job when we got out of school. I never had any delusions that college was anything BUT that- are you saying a whole generation has that delusion? And I'm assuming you are talking about the Baby Boomers? I got an IT degree and started working in the late 90s and it took me 6 months to get any kind of a job. The only reason I got a chance at that one was because of networking connections- same for my second and third jobs.
The biggest reason my parents (Silent Gen not Boomers) pushed me and my siblings to go to college is because they saw their peers with degrees earning a great deal more than they did. There are multiple studies that have shown that, over the course of a career, college grads make more than high school grads. Here's one of those from three years ago that was the easiest to find from Google:
Income gap between college and high school grads
I do wish one of these studies would separate out skilled trades and compare THOSE fields to college grads over the course of a career and see if the gap is really so wide.
But my point is, people are trying to do what they think is best for their kids to give them a shot at a life 'better' than theirs was. Most 18 year olds don't have enough experience to make good, life changing decisions on their own. Many parents don't necessarily know anything about what degrees will get their kids a job out of college, whether their kids are cut out for college, etc, so they could be screwing up, but the stats at hand showed them college is what they should push their kids to do.
Someone spending the kind of cash that has to be forked over now for 'four years of hell' needs to nut up and actually tell their parents it's not for them and get out. I know you are exaggerating to make a point, but it takes away from your argument.
Also, when you say it's all about over-achieving in your subject- eh, that only really helps for your first couple of jobs. I have taken part in many hiring decisions in tech fields and other than someone right out of college, I have no use for GPAs and I don't even really care about college other than the fact that you put forth the effort and stuck with something long enough to get a degree, because it means you may have some focus and staying power in a job.
But with what I'm reading about all this extra credit bullshit (I didn't get that in high school and certainly not at college other than a two point question at the end of a test that was extra difficult), I'm going to have to start discounting that. When I'm hiring you to do a job, I care that you can get it done the FIRST TIME with no nonsense excuses or whining. If there's an issue and you can't finish on time, there'd better be something said at or before the half way point. This last minute, 'help me because I can't do it without hand holding and extra chances' isn't going to go well for these kids when they are trying to hold down jobs.