Colleges claim that you need a "well rounded education" and it's their way of adding classes that you don't need as a required part of your degree. For example, I was a journalism major and still had to take multiple math classes, science classes, and a foreign language class - none of which was applicable to being a journalist in the slightest. The first two years of my four year degree were these general education requirements.

There are many degree programs that could be simplified and take two or three years. In Europe, many business school programs are only a year, for example. That way, you spend less money in loans, can enter the workforce earlier and it's less expensive to go back to school for further training.