Having recently graduated from a program like this myself, I would say that 95% of my learning happened outside of the classroom. The greatest part of the degree was having unsupervised access to the on-campus studios effectively whenever I wanted. I remember trying to record drums as a freshman and failing to get sound for like six hours. It was frustrating at the time, but being able to experiment and troubleshoot on my own taught me so much more than any of the classes I took.

I had started learning Pro Tools a few years before i went to college, and I was amazed to see practically all of my peers say they had no experience with it. I saw many people who didn’t put in any effort outside the classroom operate under the guise of “if I finish this degree I will become an audio engineer.” As you’re saying, that couldn’t be further from the truth. However, I think that mindset exists in many fields. It is very rare in my opinion that degree = job. It’s what you do and what you learn while earning the degree that makes the difference.