Some schools, like Carnegie-Mellon, explicitly promise to match any scholarship offer. At the same time, need-blind admissions policies are disappearing. Now, it's an investment, like brand management. As one effect of this increased competition, tuition costs are rising, as colleges seek to pay for campus improvements and new hires. From 1988 to 1998, costs rose 22 percent at public colleges and universities, and 28 percent at private schools.
Scholarships are only a partial answer when it comes to helping the neediest students.
There are racial divides as well. The only solution, says Reich, is for schools to stop focusing on students who are going to go to college anyway. Schools might compete to find less traditional students. Robert Reich, The American Prospect. A glimpse at California suggests otherwise.