There is the part where you talk to someone to figure out what you need to code. And that parts important but defense wasn't taught at my university.
to learn & investigate, communicate
I did not take a learning and investigation course in my CS program, not did I take a communication course.
design systems
Are there good books that teach you how to design systems in general? How to build a good chat app, vs EMR app vs a good embedded code is completely different. So every book or article I've seen on design is so abstract to be useless, or very focused on a subdomain.
Not to mention a background in OS
Honestly this hasn't really ever come in handy. I'm sure someone can come up with a time or too it was helpful but I'd trade all my knowledge about OS's for better understanding of CSS.
database
Learned a little about databases from a 6 month course but equal or less than amount my friend learned from a boot camp.
programming languages
I had experience with a bunch of esoteric languages like Haskell, lisp, but I didn't know any language well. We didnt learn anything about JavaScript.
Things he learned that I didn't, how to use an ORM, how to build a web application, how to use libraries and frameworks, how to use ruby on rails, JavaScript, react, css.
Overall we learned a similar amount of useful stuff, but he did it in 4 months for 10k and it took me 4 years and 100k.
Why is it a mistake to view them as job applications? Maybe you want to take out 100k in debt to just learn interesting things about computers, but i did it because i wanted a career.
That said, I think there's a place for essentially "assembly line" developers. However, the income and career trajectory will reflect that, and that's not the dream they are being sold.
This is fair. And I’d argue for a 2-year degree here. Or, employer-run apprenticeships. The for-profit boot camp, like much of the for-profit college industry, is mostly just an awful industry that shouldn’t exist.
I hope you came away from your 4 years with the tools to learn & investigate, communicate, design systems, all with a heaping side of general education you might not have otherwise obtained. Not to mention a background in OS, database, programming languages, etc that there’s no possible way to cover in a boot camp. If none of that happened, then you did get ripped off.
Most four year degrees shouldn’t be viewed as jobs programs. Yes, they’ve effectively become that, but that’s a mistake, IMO. Exceptions would be true professional programs (engineering leading to a PE, nursing, etc).