Does the High Cost of Education Mean the end of Brick and Mortar Schools?

With more people choosing online education, the value of traditional four-year residential college is coming into question. Yes, a true college experience can teach precious life lessons that no website could ever compete with; however, with the accessibility of information online, does it make sense to spend thousands of dollars when online college can provide all the tools to succeed in the business world? In the wise words of Will Hunting, “You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library.”
Four long and expensive years.
Most occupations do not require approximately 32 semester-long courses, which is exactly what students will be trudging through in a traditional college environment. True job expertise does not come from required (i.e. uninteresting) courses, but rather from specializing, and concentrating all focus on the student’s interests. Even employers are realizing that the trend toward distance learning can provide them more qualified and better prepared employees. Two-year community college and online courses tailor course work more to the real needs of the occupation.
Brick-and-mortar campuses will certainly not vanish overnight, but even the need for a library is possibly soon to be extinct. According to The American Journal, Google is currently scanning every book in the libraries of Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Oxford, the New York Public Library, as well as many others. This project will encompass close to the sum total of human knowledge. With this vast amount of information available on the internet, it only makes sense to take full advantage of distance learning. The time and money saved by participating in an online college truly outweighs the high cost of traditional college.