You can still say you learnt a lot from attending college even if you never finished.

That's true, but doing so leaves you in the same position as any high school graduate with regard to being able to list a degree on your resume. When companies are able to filter based on what you have learned X years of coruses might be a distinction, but in the present system it is only possible to have a very coarse-grained view, and in the current system

   has_degree = lambda years, total: years == total
   has_degree(3,4)
   => False

Edit: Renamed method attended_college method to has_degree to better reflect functionality.

Not necessarily true. I 'attended' college for 4.5 years, completed 140% of the required credits to graduate but I'm technically 3 classes shy of my degree. I left school in 2003.

Suffice it to say, I don't think has_degree can be implemented as a one-liner.

That's true of many things, and often those that can shouldn't. It does, however, capture the sentiment of those who believe that not having a Bachelors degree renders you an unemployable member of the lowest castes of society.

Of course everyone must know someone who has attended Uni/college and dropped out. I know a guy who I would classify as smarter than me. Dropped out in his third year, didn't help that he was dyslexic.

My wife went to undergrad for 3 years and has an undergrad degree. You're program doesn't account for credit hours or degree specific degree requirements.