Tangentially, this reminds me of something else: the grandparent studied another STEM discipline (aerospace engineering). Yet he's not only been able to master programming well enough to be employable as a core software engineer, is able to self-study non-trivial topics in Computer Science (that are generally only taught to early graduate students or advanced undergrads), and works as an attorney.
I think that illustrates the real value of education, which has nothing to do with brand name or credentialing. I like that I studied enough electrical engineering to do hobbyist projects with FPGAs; enough physics, math, and other sciences to be able to make sense of Nature articles, as well stay up to date with relatively new and fast growing fields like neuroscience and molecular biology.
Not everyone will extract this out of their degree program and there are definitely a few universities that make it difficult to get this kind of background knowledge. However, I'd wager that most good universities (ABET accredited CS/engineering programs, most faculty having Ph.D.s and publishing, healthy portion of students going on to graduate schools, etc...) offer this to students -- irrespective of their USNWR rating is (which, I think, at least for general undergraduate studies becomes more of a game beyond a certain point).
Could MOOCs offer this? Probably, but having structure and providing a toplogical sort (just like you've described it) of disciplines -- as well as things like labs for hard sciences -- is also valuable.
I think that illustrates the real value of education, which has nothing to do with brand name or credentialing. I like that I studied enough electrical engineering to do hobbyist projects with FPGAs; enough physics, math, and other sciences to be able to make sense of Nature articles, as well stay up to date with relatively new and fast growing fields like neuroscience and molecular biology.
Not everyone will extract this out of their degree program and there are definitely a few universities that make it difficult to get this kind of background knowledge. However, I'd wager that most good universities (ABET accredited CS/engineering programs, most faculty having Ph.D.s and publishing, healthy portion of students going on to graduate schools, etc...) offer this to students -- irrespective of their USNWR rating is (which, I think, at least for general undergraduate studies becomes more of a game beyond a certain point).
Could MOOCs offer this? Probably, but having structure and providing a toplogical sort (just like you've described it) of disciplines -- as well as things like labs for hard sciences -- is also valuable.