College in the US used to be difficult to get into and to pay for, but today almost anyone can get accepted, get financed, and graduate so it has become the expectation. Since it is so easy to get the degree, if you don't have one people wonder why not...

As I understand, most of the rest of the world (even EU) still has fewer opportunities for higher education, so it is understandable that not everyone has it.

No, I didn't mean it like that.
Take Norway for example. Everyone in Norway can take bachelors, masters and even PH.D's with ease, I believe close to 90% chose to take higher education. However I believe Norwegian airlines, and most other airlines in Europe only cares about yuor certs and experience, not college, wich is unrelated to this type of job in their eyes.
I don't think anyone has a hard time of going to college/university in western Europe

hmm.. maybe i should go to western Europe to fly than :) haha

Yeah, and you'll quickly find out why people come from Europe to train here.

I would train in europe if it wasn't so damn expensive in comparison to the american prices