Competition

According to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, “The world is getting more competitive. Average is over.” We live in a hyper-competitive age, starting with competition for our attention and playing out across every facet of our lives. This pressures individuals, families, and institutions to stand out. The unexpected impact of this trend is playing out in several negative ways.

I graduated from high school in 1990 and worried about getting into a good college, as did most of my peers. We also knew college would be expensive, but people weren't panicked about the costs despite living in a fading, working-class town. This, too has changed, but again for the worse. Anecdotally speaking, the terror of colleges’ skyrocketing price tag seems to manifest in three ways. One group is wealthy enough to be insulated (although I still think it should be considered in 99% of the cases). A second knows it will be brutal but can’t see any other option. And a final small but growing group seems to be making what I would consider intelligent, strategic decisions like doing two years of community college with plans to transfer. This, while brilliant, is unfortunate in that these students, in my experience, are bright, long-term thinkers that society should push to the top of the educational ladder.

From 1990 to 2020, higher education costs have increased by over 130% in the US, outpacing inflation, healthcare, and housing costs. At the same time, the general impression is that it has gotten much harder to be admitted, which is not entirely true. In her 2009 "The Changing Selectivity of American Colleges,” Caroline Hoxby explains that a small number of prestigious schools have become significantly harder to get into but that these are exceptions to the rule. According to Hoxby, the change distorts the entire college review and selection process.

[S]tudents, especially high-aptitude students, are far more sensitive to a college's resources and student body. It is the consequent re-sorting of students among colleges that has, at once, caused selectivity to rise in a small number of colleges while simultaneously causing it to fall in other colleges. This has had profound implications for colleges' resources, tuition, and student subsidies.

My alma mater, the Eastman School of Music, was competitive when I applied. After my audition, one of my mother’s co-workers approached her with a copy of US News and World Reports and informed her that I wasn’t getting in. “It’s harder to get into Eastman than Harvard!” She scoffed, showing my mother that Eastman’s acceptance rate was 12% while Harvard’s was 15%. My mother knew all this and had persuaded me to pick two potential fallback schools. During the several months between my last audition and my first acceptance letter, she made an incredible effort to tell me why she hoped I would go to one of those, “It’s such a cute town,” or “everyone there was so nice.” She did a great job; I should thank her again.

Anyway, NYU professor Scott Galloway is deeply disturbed by the current state of higher education in the US. He believes the US News and World Report college rankings (cited by my mother’s co-worker) have fueled the problem. Galloway explains how scarcity increases a product’s perceived value and that while scarcity-driven perceptions about designer handbags don’t lead to adverse societal outcomes, they do regarding college choice and decision-making.

I’ve been writing and speaking about higher ed for years now. Specifically, it’s become a luxury good: exclusive, scarce, and expensive. In 2020, it looked like an accelerant (the pandemic), and a disruptor (technology) would change this. It hasn’t. Colleges doubled down on exclusivity.

Scott Galloway, No Mercy/No Malice, January 6, 2023

My admission letter to Eastman came just before I sang in the Vermont All-State Music Festival choir. Two Vermonters were admitted that year, and believe me, I bragged about it. Of course, I had nothing to brag about when I got there—we all had managed that! In Eastman’s rarefied air, bragging rights went to those who also got into Curtis, Juilliard, or in several cases, both.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, the only thing you discover at the top of any ranking ladder is that another ladder is waiting for you to climb! I’ve struggled to teach this lesson and have concluded that it simply can’t be taught. It, like many elements of singing, is only learned through experience. My wife Angela, a brilliant psychologist, said the same thing about college debt. She started out as an acting major and was accepted at NYU. Her mother couldn’t support her financially, and she didn’t attend. Angela was disconsolate and said that she would have taken on any debt had her mother given her the green light. “Piero,” she said, “I don’t think reading all of this would have changed my mind back then.” She’s probably right, but that doesn’t excuse me from trying.