re: Germany abolishes college tuition fees

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We got rid of tuition fees because we do not want higher education which depends on the wealth of the parents,

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I like the principle, but in reality it doesn't necessarily solve that problem. Direct costs aren't the only financial obstacle to higher education. You also have to be able to afford to remove yourself from the workforce for four years, and you have to find a way to eat, put a roof over your head, buy health insurance if your parents don't have it or can't afford it, buy car insurance in some locations, etc. Depending on your location, that might be more expensive than tuition and books.

The other issue is that if everyone goes to college, a college degree becomes worthless. So college graduates are then sorted out based on factors that depend on what social class they were born into--such as unpaid internships (which only the rich can afford to take) or post-baccalaureate education (which becomes the new college, with access depending on being born to rich parents).

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I believe it is pretty difficult to attend college in germany, and it has to do with how education is structured there. Basically when you are ten years old you take a test. Based on the results, you either attend a "realschule", a "hauptschule", or a "gymasnium". Students at the former two are taught trades like plumbing, and maybe can attend a trade school. Students in the gymnasium, placed there due to intellectual superiority, are prepped for college. Students at the gymnasium take the "Abitur", which is kind of like ACT/SAT. It is a very comprehensive and difficult test, and determines which colleges you can attend.

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It used to be that way, but they've opened up their system a fair amount in the last ten or twenty years (shifting more towards the American model) both because of a large outcry from parents as they insisted on their children attaining a university education and because they thought it sound national policy to have more and more people attain university degrees to compete in an information economy. They've also increasingly been opening Gymnasium enrollment.

Besides the Abitur, you can also take the Begabtenprufung (kind of like a juiced up GED) to gain admittance.

German Gymnasiums are generally a lot more difficult than your average American high schools, but American universities are almost universally considered better. You might - maybe - be able to make an argument that some of the Scandinavian systems could effectively compete with ours, but the American system is still considered by most to be the best in the world, even if many of the very top schools are private; even then, our state flagship publics by themselves can go toe-to-toe with any other country's system.

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So what is the value of a college degree now?

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When has the value of a college degree ever been determined by how much one spent to get it?

What an absurd question.

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The other issue is that if everyone goes to college, a college degree becomes worthless. 

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Except everyone doesn't go to college in Germany. All they say is that if you get in, its free. The ones that don't get to learn a trade. That's the problem in the US. When you have welders and plumbers making more than engineers and lawyers (most not all), you know you have a problem.

We have wayyyyyy to many colleges in the U.S..

The job being created are skilled labor jobs (welders, fitters, mechanics) not so much white collar jobs.

I currently am attending graduate school in Germany. For free.

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When you have welders and plumbers making more than engineers and lawyers (most not all), you know you have a problem.

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Well who is more important when the shite hits the fan a plumber or a lawyer?

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n my short time in college this semester, I was shocked how many students disappear after everyone got their Student Aid checks. Some of my classes shrunk in size, and many students/teachers acted if this was no big deal. One person even called it "The Great Student Aid Migration". I was taken back by this, but when we've put such a profit and money driven ideology behind our education system. Things like this happening isn't to shocking, I suppose.

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Sounds to me like it was irresponsible college kids being irresponsible.

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n my short time in college this semester, I was shocked how many students disappear after everyone got their Student Aid checks. Some of my classes shrunk in size, and many students/teachers acted if this was no big deal. One person even called it "The Great Student Aid Migration". I was taken back by this, but when we've put such a profit and money driven ideology behind our education system. Things like this happening isn't to shocking, I suppose.

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I thought that had all ended. Students still get the money directly?

I weep for those on this thread who are supposedly educated who do not know the difference between "to" and "too."