On the first point, there's an interesting discussion to be had about what we mean by successful---for any given student, they're just as well off on average at

On the first point, there's an interesting discussion to be had about what we mean by successful---for any given student, they're just as well off on average at Vaughn Aeronautic College as U Chicago (and better off at Stanford, Princeton, or MIT). However, Vaughn takes so many more low income students that their marginally lower success rate helps so many more. As a graduate of an elite college coming in from a highly privileged background (and thus as someone trying to minimize cognitive dissonance), I do think we would lose something if we as a society only put our resources into colleges that focused on lower income students. That said, I wouldn't be too bummed if more of my tax dollars ended up in places where it was actually helping people who benefited from that help.