Life is a poem without rhyme. Some people just don't know to appreciate the right ones.

I think there's a crucial element and aspect of a good higher education.

And it's that the university or college must instill and strengthen the student's hard working habit (not work ethic. The latter may only be taught by one's parents and himself?), as well as intellectual custom and curiosity, by constantly urging him on by loading him with relatively heavy academic learning and work. One extreme example of that is the infamous or famous "drinking from the fire hose" approach long adopted by MIT.