This is because most 4-year university's spend 18-24 months devoted to leftist indoctrination.
A motivated student can already graduate an American University in three years.
There is more to the college experience than how fast you can get through it and get to work. Teams, clubs, fraternities student government, learning to live on your own and some extra time to recover from a screw up or two are built into the system.
Lots more people want to come to college in the U.S. - our good colleges are doing fine.
We've got a lot of crappy colleges but that's another thread.
It seems the trend is toward 5 years, not 3.
Well-rounded, my butt, they merely want you to stay 5 or 6 years and pay for this indoctrination. To hell with them!
It seems to me that signigicant portions of the classes I was required to take in College were a huge waste of time, and many left me in disgust at the professors and their hair-brained liberal ideas.
English teachers making up background stories about great authors in direct contradiction to the written history easily available even in those pre-internet days. Not to mention emerging authors still crawling out the slime that spawned them.
College required courses seem a lot like the Federal Budget, and there is a lot of fat that could be cut, quite probably 1 year out of a 4 year program.
Sociology
Philosophy
Psychology
Religion
Underwater Basket Weaving
Arts & Ideas
The Dynamics of Left Handed Script Writing
How to Approach Your Gay Boss If You Live in California
What about the parties?
I did a bachelors in three years.
The dirty little fact is that too many colleges DO allow students to goof off and merely con their teachers...
But some of us had to work part time, and get A's to keep our scholarships...so worked our tails off...
I could do it...but many students were not grown up enough to do it...that little thing called maturity...
Indeed, I support having kids take two years off to go into service type volunteer jobs...without losing the chance to go to college or losing their scholarship...
Or maybe do like kids in the "work study" programs at Drexel University...take five years toward a degree, because you work on and off
There are already plans in many states where this can happen.
My 17 year old is a senior in high school (but he doen't really go to high school and never has.)
Our county has "dual enrollment," so when he was in 10th grade (15) he started taking all his classes at the local college (we have two state colleges in town, both participte in the program.)
Going into this term, he has 57 credits, finishes his three needed to complete his AA, and has started this term and next taking more classes toward his major. (Yes, most of the classes up to now are "required courses" and some are aimed at leftist indoctrination...that's the beauty of having the kid at home, you can get a sense if the indoctrination is having any effect...which in our case it didn't.)
Technically, this puts kids 2 years ahead, so they finish their bachelors about the time they're 20, i.e. graduate high school and get an AA all at the same time.
And did I mention that the program is tuition free?
To parents, I say help cover the costs if you absolutely must, but only to a certain degree. From experience, I know that kids will put in much more effort if they're the ones footing the bill for their education.
When I first went away to college at age 17 (and I was an honor roll student in high school, back when that actually meant something), my dad was of the opinion that I needed to concentrate on my studies only, he he would worry about the finances. Guess who flunked out in record time?
Fast forward 26 years. Guess who has a mortgage, kids, a job, college to pay for, and has had a 4.0 GPA nearly every semester? Sure, maturity has a lot to do with it. But just a year after I originally flunked out of school, I went back for 2 semesters before getting pregnant, and got 4.0 both semesters. I was paying for it.
If they stuck to actual teaching, a student can get our current 16 years' of education in 12 or less. But of course that would undermine the left wing's immensely profitable academia scam.
Notice how much "core curriculum" is required of all college students; often ridiculous courses "taught" by grad students or TA's to hundreds at a time. It's all about revenue, folks; NOT learning.
3 years? Why go to college at all, unless you expect to specialize in something? Way too many kids are going to college merely because it's expected (by parents, culture, and prospective employers) rather for any rational reason.
We could just hand our children over the Village at birth. Once they have worked off their debt to the Village we can have them back.