"Historically people like you would be allowed to flunk out of college so that the seats would be available for people who valued education."
Got that right. Saw the announcement at the little state college I attended in the early 70s for a couple of my years where they congratulated faculty on maintaining the average Freshman GPA at 2.1, within .1 of an ideal Bell curve. See if that would elicit "customer delight" today, but, then, Reagan turned tertiary ed into a "business." Back when you were expected to be motivated, the government was paying most of the tuition bill so there was an implicit contract that _you_ would perform, not that the _college_ would make you happy.
90% attrition? Sounds about right. Back when I was on the move and U of South Africa was about the only option for me to get a graduate Honours through the mail and consulate exams, I believe their attrition was around 90% too. Best advice I got was to make it "real." Buy the frackin' university sweatshirt and wear it every day at your appointed study times and whatever other gimmick you can think of like streaming the campus radio station.