you are certainly right about the unnatural stresses on young people, and how difficult it can be at that age to get the discipline required to get through. At 23 I had 2 aborted attempts at 1st year undergraduate Physics. I had no Physics background - only humanities. I couldn't follow the lecturer at front who obviously didn't care which of the 100 or so students actually followed him or not. This also IMO very much relates to how Physics is taught and communicated.

So I left and a got a base grade clerical job. A few years later I started night school to get to entry level maths and Physics for my next attempt at 1st year Undergrad. That went very well. I then started full time Physics in my mid20s ..

Note that I could only do any of this because at the time, higher education was free. I wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise, no way financially. Free education helped me make my life ..

Much later, I did a part time Masters in Physics .. I was in my late 30s by then and had no dependents. The maturity helped me tackle new research on my own, since I had no effective or expert supervision.

Finally, my track record got me a scholarship to do Phd research. I'm now in my 40s and am only doing this out of curiosity, not so much ambition (maybe an 'ambitious curiosity' ..). I find my maturity and experience helps me to tackle advanced stuff, mainly because I can stare down the fear and confusion - as I know by now, that anything I don't understand is only a matter of breaking down the problem, reading more, and memorizing more. The most advanced math seems to just boil down to lots of interconnected facts and operations, so if I don't get something straight away, I know it's only because I've forgotten some related material, or haven't read it yet. In the past - even in my 30s - I would have panicked and procrastinated.

I wouldn't have managed without free or low cost education. Even as it is I've forgone so many other things (so far anyway) like raising children. It's been a hard road and there are other ways to get in depth and advanced education, especially if you know how to be a 'directed self learner' and not just a dilletante. MIT's OpencourseWare is outstanding and hopefully they will expand it even more in the future, although you really need broadband for the video lectures (it's worth it)

It's sad to think about how many people miss out due to financial liability or bad & uncaring lecturers - not to mention difficult living arrangements as I 've had until now. And my story shoujld show that some people really do only flower in later maturity.