In the state in which I live, New Mexico, we have 6 four-year colleges . Next store in Arizona, which has 4 times our population, there are 3 universities. Colleges and universities across the United States continue to proliferate and expand and build additional buildings and seats seemingly without regard to the impact on students and their parents.
In the negative sense, this means that there is duplication of majors and a spreading of the best talents to many institutions as opposed to consolidating them in fewer schools. It also means that students (and their parents) bear the additional costs of maintaining the universities.
On the other side, we live in a society which insists that everyone should attend colleges and graduate from them. cession, students are graduating with school debts of $100,000 to $200,000. Does the costs of college justify the expense? In a business sense, this is called return on investment.