What is the value of a college education? This is a contentious question that I believe more and more people should be asking, and debating about. Is the value

What is the value of a college education? This is a contentious question that I believe more and more people should be asking, and debating about. Is the value in the education that one receives, or in the the network that one gains access to? They're really both sides of the same coin: they both represent opportunity. Ideally, we could have both – just admit all the high-achieving students from upper middle-class backgrounds. When there's no more space, just simply expand: build some dorms, hire a few more professors, etc. But in reality, where resources are already scarce, schools face a tradeoff: do we admit the bright student from a poorer background, or the wealthier, albeit not as academically-inclined, student? Here, admissions basically become a zero-sum game. I guess it boils down to an argument of whether intellectual capital is to be more valued, or of social capital.