If college is so much better than real life then why do people leave?

Everyone always talks about how college is awesome and not even close to as hard as the real world will be. Generally, to be honest, everyone the real world is said to be this awful place where everyone ends up after school but where no one wants to be. supposedly. If the real world is so bad, then why do people ever graduate college? why would an entire cultural construct be built around an end goal of misery? I am confused.