What Exactly Is College For? (Update)
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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).