Volume 10, Number 4 (Fall) 1975
Anderson, Richard E. 1975. "Private/Public Higher Education and the Competition for High Ability Students." Journal of Human Resources 10(4):500-511.
This study examines the changing college preferences of able high school students for private vis-à-vis public higher education. It is determined that public higher education not only is enrolling more students but has become more attractive to able students--even when attractivity is adjusted for enrollment. If private institutions of higher learning justify their higher tuition charges with an image of selectivity, one can expect that many will have an increasingly difficult time filling their freshman classes. When several state policies are examined, both low public tuition and expansion of the number of public colleges adversely affect the private institutions in the competition for able students.
The author is Administrator of the Joint Program in Higher Education Finance, Teachers College, Columbia University. The author wishes to thank the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, the Educational Testing Service, and the College Entrance Examination Board for providing data which made this study possible. It should also be noted that the data requested were released to the author in a manner which maintained anonymity for the individual colleges and universities.
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