In the US it is easy for people to return to university after dropping out. Even doing so multiple times is not a consideration for admission, e.g. I had five different majors over 12 years at three different universities (plus a stint in vocational school) before earning a bachelor's degree.

It is also common people to pursue a bachelor's degree in their 30's or 40's or later. Culturally, in large part this is a result of the changes to US higher education created by the GI bill following WWII - one of my grandfathers earned his bachelor's degree at the age of 40 following the war and my father in law his bachelor's at 43 after retiring from the navy in the 1970's.

But pursuing a degree in later life is not just tied to the GI Bill. One of my brothers-in law earned his bachelor's online at 51, another has earned two Master's degrees after age 40 (bachelor's at 36) and a third earned his bachelor's at 46.

None of my relatives would have been considered for the Gymnasium under the German system and my switching majors four times would have been frowned upon within German higher education(from Electrical Engineering to Chemistry to Geology to Chemistry Education to Philosophy)

Do you consider it a good thing to have people getting 4 or 5 degrees and/or majors before they figure out what they really want to do in life? If yes, do you believe the cost of getting these degrees and/or attending college for more than 4 years should be paid for by themselves, or by others.

In some ways, yes, I think it is a good thing. Channeling people into vocations at 18 [US system] or 10-13 [German system] isn't consistent with what is known about human development in general, and brain development in particular [http://hrweb.mit.edu/worklife/youngadult/changes.html] - and that's the scientific part of your question. The human cost of such channeling may be seen even here on HN [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2238225] where fortunately for the poster he has access to the US educational system.

Who should pay for what is a political question - but in general the US system is pay to play and most students are not subsidized by with public funds (even though their loans may be Federally guaranteed).

  > Channeling people into vocations at 18 [US system]
  > or 10-13 [German system]

Don't exaggerate. Yes, it's true that there's some segregation going on at that point (Gymnasium versus Hauptschule versus Realschule), but the boundaries are permeable.

Even if one assumes that students stick to their "path," that doesn't mean that they don't have a choice over their vocations later on. You're free to do whatever you want. Most students start their first degree when they're 21/22. 30-35% (IIRC) change "major."

I wouldn't say that HE flexibility is a specifically American strength.

a) The GI bill was an exception to the rule. I sincerely doubt that people earning BAs in their 40s are as common nowadays as you claim they are. At least not more than common than in Germany. (Yes, it happens.)

b) Changing majors four times would indeed be frowned upon. But that doesn't mean it's impossible or even actively discouraged. Moreover, I don't believe that such radical and seemingly aimless changes are perfectly acceptable (in a social sense) in the US.

October 2009 US statisics:

College students over the age of 35 = 1.18 million full time + 2.01 million part time.

[http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/school/cps2009/tab0...]

To put it in perspective approximately 1.00 million students enter German universities each year. Considering the three year structure of German University education - a crude approximation would be that there are roughly as many US college students over 35 as there are German university students.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Germany#Student_Po...