The more fundamental problem with colleges is they have no idea how to help people learn. And don't even think that's what they should be doing. No, they want to "teach" students, by which they mean force them to listen to lectures, whether they are interested and learning or not, and force them to do work whether it helps them individually or not, and force them to take tests to make sure they obeyed.
The only way to get through college without losing your sanity is to take classes you know absolutely nothing about and don't particularly care about, other than being vaguely curious. When I stopped taking CS and business classes and started taking stuff like intro to Asian religions and intro winemaking I got a lot happier. Your goal in taking a course should be to learn enough of the terminology, context, and schemas that you can read the rest of the journal articles in the field on your own. (You should also learn to ask meaningful questions.)
Speaking of, I think everyone should take a class that covers the history and methodology of religious study before graduating. Religious studies people, the good ones at least, spend a lot of their time thinking about the same stuff that net natives think about, like how memes go viral and how stuff creates value for users. Even if you're a militant atheist it's still kind of interesting and useful.
