I (mostly) agree with BEagle as well!
Three degree glidepaths are fine for the professional schools where the students won't do anything else in their professional life, but for your average GA pilot they are a bit excessive. IMHO, your average GA pilot doesn't need them, closer circuits/higher approaches give you a chance to reach the runway if your one and only engine quits. I don't know the statistics for carb icing on finals, but I suspect it's not an isolated event.
As for big circuits - don't get me started! Except to say that once I landed my own aircraft at a local airfield where the instructors were wannabe airline pilots and taught their students to fly airliner style circuits like they did. I could see someone a few miles ahead when turning downwind, but he was so far away I assumed he was leaving the circuit. I was sitting in the bar with a cup of coffee by the time he landed (no exaggeration) when he berated me for cutting him up in the circuit!
