Colleges are great in that they offer nice infrastructure that's hard to find elsewhere: amazing libraries, laboratories, possibly, access to people doing research in the area you are interested in...Ultimately, though, everyone has to teach their own selves.
mmm, not necessarily. If you were interested in a specific field you could visit the class a few times and sit in, observe, ask questions of the professor or aids on office time. If you want to do a lot of things at a university, you can likely make it happen.
In theory yes, it practice, it was hard. I mean, I got into a lab, but it was a hard struggle to do so, with univ. system working against me (most of the time) rather than in favour.
IMHO its mainly the difference between top-down organization (where student is expected to perform assigned task, here: attend classes) rather than bottom-up (where the environment offers opportunities, which can be used).
If you had a very different experience, just curious - which country/univ.?
