Thats interesting. Prior to my time at UND, I was a student at Concordia College for a bit (a fine school). They pride themselves on the four year thing. It was a much more paternalistic system, I felt they treated me as more kid than adult. But, they have a very good graduation rate.
The differences to me were fairly clear, right or wrong: At a place like Concordia you will get a good education in four years and that will come with the academic, extra curricular, and social opportunities that a relatively small liberal arts school can provide (At private school tuition rates)
At UND, everything was available to me (more or less). I had to make my own decisions and decide what opportunities I wanted to embrace academically and otherwise. If I wanted support it was/is available. I was not babysat and did not expect to be. A school the size of UND can give anyone what they want to take from it.