Popular accounts from earlier decades, when fewer people went off to college, suggest that high school used to play this role, as well as being a place where many people met their spouse.
My guess is college itself is less important to lifetime friend accumulation than spending any amount of significant time with age peers when you’re a young adult. In my circle, many life-long friendships were formed by young colleagues in their first jobs or among young post-college roommates.
The typical college years just happen to line up neatly with the part of adult life in which people are most interested in new experiences and new people. You tend to make lots of lasting friendships when you’re interested in making friends, and everyone around you is as interested as you are. As an older adult, most people in the same stage of life simply have no interest in friendship with you.
My guess is college itself is less important to lifetime friend accumulation than spending any amount of significant time with age peers when you’re a young adult. In my circle, many life-long friendships were formed by young colleagues in their first jobs or among young post-college roommates.
The typical college years just happen to line up neatly with the part of adult life in which people are most interested in new experiences and new people. You tend to make lots of lasting friendships when you’re interested in making friends, and everyone around you is as interested as you are. As an older adult, most people in the same stage of life simply have no interest in friendship with you.