Yeah, it's actually funny that the GP's characterization is more aligned with the historical/ancient function of colleges and universities than the current one. For many decades at a time, you could characterize the student body of legendary schools like Oxford as "Bands of bored and inebriated wealthy teenagers."

For the best example, look no further than the St. Scholastica Day Riots, which started with a drunk angry scholar and escalated into a mob riot with nearly 100 casualties. [0] When not rioting against the villagers, Oxford scholars in the 13th and 14th century were prone to riot amongst themselves.

Similar disagreements in the past culminated in lynchings and led to the founding of the University of Cambridge (to avoid more bloodshed from angry villagers, but also in part to avoid accountability for other kerfuffles). So yeah, wealthy teenager daycare with education on the side is nothing new.

Edit: fixed a few historical inaccuracies, I mixed a few events in my head.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Scholastica_Day_riot