It would also be interesting to see the college graduation success rates of those who jumped in immediately to college life and those who deferred due to enlistment.
I think what you might refer to is the process of being in the military, going through basic training, etc.
If I had to choose people to belong to a team and get something done, I would choose a 20 year old soldier over any 20 year old college student every time.
That soldier has learned how to be on time.
That soldier has learned how a chain of command works.
That soldier has learned how to work as part of a team and has practical experience.
That soldier has learned how to live and work with people.
That soldier has learned manners. (This is often overlooked, but it is related to learning how to work in a chain of command. For example, I cannot recall seeing a military person being overtly rude to a civilian...without fail, they are courteous to a fault.)
That soldier has learned the value of neatness and order.
That soldier has learned how to make decisions.
Most importantly, that soldier has learned responsibility. Here is an example from my own experience: When I was in the USN, I ended up on my last cruise as a flight deck troubleshooter in an attack squadron (VA-46). We were launching a fairly large strike during an exercise, and one of our planes had some oil dripping from one of its wraparound panels on its belly. I ran over, pulled the panel off, and saw a fitting that was dripping oil. I figured "Ok, this is fixable. I'll just cut the safety wire, tighten the fitting and re-safety wire it." So I begin...after a few minutes, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and saw the shoes of one of the CPO Yellow Shirts behind me. He yelled in my ear "How long are you going to take? The Captain wants to know when he can change course..." I yelled back it would take two minutes, and went right back to safety wiring, was done and had the panel back on in under two minutes (no small feat...there were at least 40 fasteners on that panel that needed to be screwed back in with my speed handle...teamwork helped there!) and I didn't give it a second thought. The plane launched, the carrier and its accompanying ships turned, and on we went.
It was only later that I thought to myself...there I was, a 20 year old Aviation Machinist's Mate doing my job, and probably 10,000 men and Billions of dollars of ships were all heading in one direction waiting for me to finish my work. And they trusted me to do it.
You CANNOT teach that in college.
Let us not forget the maturity of the average 20 year old troop as compared with the average College sophomore.