The US often prides itself on its world renowned universities, but this is usually due to the prestige of its research arms. In terms of actual education, the US school system is quite inefficient compared to other developed nations. What takes some countries 16 years takes the US 18-22. We spend a lot of time focusing on trivia and irrelevant courses for the sake of a "rounded" education, though retention is low and most people willfully forget anything they learned that doesn't have any use in their day to day lives