Around 35% of college students these days attend midter publics. Another ten % attend four profit colleges. Community colleges have significantly less resources to devote to their students. Theyare spending about eight thousand dollars a year per student. The ivies, for example, they may be spending up to a hundred000 dollars per student. And i'm not so sure that the flagship publics and great privates need more government support.
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.”)