There is no doubt signaling at play, but one important signal conferred by graduating is “can slog all the way to completion of a multi-year, somewhat difficult, often tedious project, following somewhat arbitrary rules along the way.”
That’s close to actual job requirements in a lot of places.
That is indeed the big signaling aspect Kaplan talks about. It's still signaling, that is, what the student learns during that is considered less important.
That’s close to actual job requirements in a lot of places.