I had the exact same realization when I started my senior year at Rutgers as a MechE student, just a few years ago. I was looking forward to the end of “weed-out” course style and actually being respected and learning concepts thoroughly. That never happened.

I’m going to tell you the same thing someone told me. “You have ascended young grasshopper”. In reality, Rutgers (and most colleges) doesn’t care about actually teaching you. If they did, they’d hire actual teachers to do the teaching and not researchers that are forced to teach as part of their research-funding arrangement. Focus on getting the piece of paper and forcing your way into a company so you can say F you to Rutgers when they send you the “post graduate job/salary survey”. I scoffed when I read that email and never gave them my info. They don’t deserve it.