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 originally published in 2022, we ask what our chaotic system gets right — and wrong. (Part 1 of “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.”)

• SOURCES:
  • Peter Blair, faculty research Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research and professor of education at Harvard University.
  • Catharine Hill, former president of Vassar College; trustee at Yale University; and managing director at Ithaka S+R.
  • Morton Schapiro, professor of economics and former president of Northwestern University.
  • Ruth Simmons, former president of Smith College, Brown University, and Prairie View A&M University.
  • Miguel Urquiola, professor of economics at Columbia University.

• RESOURCES:
  • "Progressivity of Pricing at U.S. Public Universities," by Emily E. Cook and Sarah Turner (NBER Working Paper, 2022).
  • "Community Colleges and Upward Mobility," by Jack Mountjoy (NBER Working Paper, 2021).
  • "How HBCUs Can Accelerate Black Economic Mobility," (McKinsey & Company, 2021).
  • Markets, Minds, and Money: Why America Leads the World in University Research, by Miguel Urquiola (2021).
  • "Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility," by Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, Emmanuel Saez, Nicholas Turner, and Danny Yagan (NBER Working Paper, 2017).

• EXTRAS:
  • "'If We’re All in It for Ourselves, Who Are We?'" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
  • "'A Low Moment in Higher Education,'" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
  • "The $1.5 Trillion Question: How to Fix Student-Loan Debt?" by Freakonomics Radio (2019).
  • "Why Larry Summers Is the Economist Everyone Hates to Love," by Freakonomics Radio (2017).