The University of Impossible-to-Get-Into (Update)

America’s top colleges are facing record demand. So why don’t they increase supply? (Part 2 of our series from 2022, “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.”)

• SOURCES:
  • Peter Blair, professor of education at Harvard University and faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
  • Zachary Bleemer, assistant professor of economics at Princeton University and faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
  • Amalia Miller, professor of economics at the University of Virginia.
  • Morton Schapiro, professor of economics and former president of Northwestern University.
  • Miguel Urquiola, professor of economics at Columbia University.

• RESOURCES:
  • “Elite Schools and Opting In: Effects of College Selectivity on Career and Family Outcomes,” by Suqin Ge, Elliott Isaac, and Amalia Miller (Journal of Labor Economics, 2022).
  • “Why Don’t Elite Colleges Expand Supply?” by Peter Q. Blair & Kent Smetters (NBER Working Paper, 2021).
  • “Lori Loughlin Pleads Guilty via Zoom in College Admissions Case,” by Kate Taylor (The New York Times, 2020).
  • Markets, Minds, and Money: Why America Leads the World in University Research, by Miguel Urquiola (2020).
  • “To Cheat and Lie in L.A.: How the College-Admissions Scandal Ensnared the Richest Families in Southern California,” by Evgenia Peretz (Vanity Fair, 2019).
  • The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money, by Bryan Caplan (2018).
  • “The World Might Be Better Off Without College for Everyone,” by Bryan Caplan (The Atlantic, 2018).
  • “Are Tenure Track Professors Better Teachers?” by David N. Figlio, Morton O. Schapiro, and Kevin B. Soter (NBER Working Paper, 2013).
  • “Estimating the Payoff to Attending a More Selective College: An Application of Selection on Observables and Unobservables,” by Stacy Berg Dale and Alan Krueger (NBER Working Paper, 1999).
  • "Report on the University’s Role in Political and Social Action," by the Kalven Committee (1967).

• EXTRAS:
  • "What Exactly Is College For? (Update)," by Freakonomics Radio (2024).