The problem is more that in an undergrad degree you are unlikely to need to do any large scale (by industry standards) project. So the way that they teach you good design is largely forced and the most academic way to do that is through a "design patterns" type class where the project that you are building is small enough not to require design patterns in the first place.

This will then educate people that you should really always look for patterns to apply and ways to abstract things since you will be artificially marked up at college for building abstractions and will look for them in every problem you have.

On the other hand someone who is more taught by experience will start by writing awful code like putting their whole program into 1 or 2 functions , they will then experience pain points because of this and realise certain re-occuring problems and either come up with their own solutions to them or read "gang of 4" , this will teach them design patterns the natural way.

This is exactly how I taught myself. The transition from unorganized to organized (patterns) happened for me pretty naturally. For me, it was learn how to organize, or quit. Now-a-days, patterns are everywhere (and probably have been, but I didn't get it until I got it :)