I think this can be true to an extent. However, as a current college student I have been required to take courses to advance in my degree program that have been

I think this can be true to an extent. However, as a current college student I have been required to take courses to advance in my degree program that have been scoped entirely within things I already knew. For example there was a course that almost entirely covered collaborative development and some regex, when I already had enough regex knowledge and was actively working as a software engineer, doing collaborative development all day every day. There are definitely some areas where you have to make an effort to learn- and I do. But so far in my computer science degree (I'm taking third-year courses right now), all I've really learned is C++, but that's really not much considering I taught most of it to myself before my first term since I tested out of the entry-level courses.