Why Isn't Northwestern a Research University?

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Mordi shapero is the president of northwestern university in New Jersey. He went from loading trucks for the minimum wage to making around two million dollars a year as a college president. Research shows that certain types of colleges are much better at moving students up the income distribution, rather than simply taking in students from well off families and helping them stay well off.

We think of them as intellectual enclaves and the surest route to a better life. But U.S. colleges also operate like firms, trying to differentiate their products to win market share and prestige points. In the first episode of a special series, we ask what our chaotic system gets right — and wrong. (Part 1 of “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.”)