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National service (as used in other places) is a great solution to this problem if only one could get our culture in N. America on-board with it.
Compulsory service? Conscription? Active draft? Hard labor on a peanut farm? Some may say that volunteering voluntarily is a cherished exercise of liberty and therefore valued differently than being assigned compulsory service.

Meanwhile the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports that the number of college students over 25 has been trending higher than enrollment of students under 25:
Originally Posted by NCES
Between 2000 and 2011, the enrollment of students under age 25 increased by 35 percent. Enrollment of students 25 and over rose 41 percent during the same period. From 2011 to 2021, NCES projects a rise of 13 percent in enrollments of students under 25, and a rise of 14 percent in enrollments of students 25 and over.
Figures are not reported separately for highly selective schools.