[timonv]

Or, turn it the other way around, don't let bad schooling take years of the best period of your life.

I dropped out after 3-4'ish years of AI, and now I'm working on AI projects year round.

I think it's slightly patronising and playing it safe to say people should consider staying just because they might not ever get the chance to learn these things later in life. For one, that's their responsibility. The knowledge you pick up at a university can deprecate just as much (if its not already). If you don't continue to pick things up later in life, that's your own fault. Secondly, grades and bureaucracy, in my opinion, instil competition and stress in the areas where it doesn't matter. Universities should be concerned with obtaining knowledge.