1) College students don't ask how old you are, but what year. Take classes in the summer and winter to change that faster.
2) Since you do care about learning, but want to pick your own classes and also learn more efficiently, talk to your advisors. They will let you take more fun, advanced classes in place of ones you are taking right now.
3) Realize that in the US, the same freedom students have to do virtually nothing and still stay in the program until graduation is the same freedom that allows a student to concentrate and complete their studies much sooner. Rigorous schools around the world make sure students do the same amount of work, but such programs can sometimes limit students who want to go even faster or pick their own loads each semester depending on what they want to do outside of school. Here, schools give you a wide variety of ways to take classes (on campus, online, winter, summer, transfer credit from other schools), majors, credit loads, class offerings, and just enough structure to keep students on a path. However, the freedom to chart one's own path and speed is given to the student--so take advantage of it.
2) Since you do care about learning, but want to pick your own classes and also learn more efficiently, talk to your advisors. They will let you take more fun, advanced classes in place of ones you are taking right now.
3) Realize that in the US, the same freedom students have to do virtually nothing and still stay in the program until graduation is the same freedom that allows a student to concentrate and complete their studies much sooner. Rigorous schools around the world make sure students do the same amount of work, but such programs can sometimes limit students who want to go even faster or pick their own loads each semester depending on what they want to do outside of school. Here, schools give you a wide variety of ways to take classes (on campus, online, winter, summer, transfer credit from other schools), majors, credit loads, class offerings, and just enough structure to keep students on a path. However, the freedom to chart one's own path and speed is given to the student--so take advantage of it.
My other post for you: http://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=379988