Sorry, but such a conclusion is warranted only if College = Harvard. Is Harvard representative of "college" in the generic sense? Definitely not; not all higher ed is interchangeable. Such information is only suggestive of the idea that an HARVARD's major purpose is filtering. That tends to occur at the admissions proceedings in most selective Ivies. That's a different model than one finds at public colleges, by the way, where virtually anyone can GET in, but staying there may be another story. Faculty control who "stays" in the latter model, via course rigor and the avoidance of grade inflation. (It's a mixed bag, I'm aware... administrator want to keep EVERYONE, and your alumni want you to throw the stragglers under the bus.)
This isn't much of a secret in higher ed, by the way.
I agree with the above but think that online courses with safeguards against cheating (which also occurs at residential schools) may be able to filter as well as residential schools. I do not count on this happening (and employers recognizing this) by the time my children go to college in about a decade, but when their children graduate from high school ...
