Comment by ajmurmann

This is somewhat reflected in how we value university degrees. You get very little additional salary from having finished all but the last semester of a degree. The big boost all comes from the last semester where you get the degree. You'd expect that the vast majority of the actual knowledge is already there at that point and late dropouts would be seen by employers as some great bargain. It shows that the signaling of the degree trump's the actual knowledge. Good discussion with Bryan Caplan on this: https://www.econtalk.org/bryan-caplan-on-college-signaling-a...

So, unfortunately the student's behavior is somewhat rational given the incentive structure they operate in.