As yters points out correctly, the real world is not like a college environment, where you are surrounded by other people your own age.

There is something about being surrounded by other people just as clueless, inexperienced, and eager to experiment as you, that stimulates the creation of convention-defying ideas.

That said I would like to think I did not need college to become an intelligent, aware, adult. But it sure did help and it sure was fun.