Six-Chart Sunday -- The College Conundrum
6 Infographics + 1 Video (Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford commencement)
I attended a wonderful college graduation this weekend (our youngest!), and it got me thinking about American higher education. U.S. universities are the envy of the world, the ultimate cheat code in the global contest to dominate innovation, science and the workforce. At the same time our colleges today are more expensive, exclusive, ideologically-unbalanced and socially-controversial than ever before. What’s going right, what’s going wrong, and where should we go from here?
We’re #1! The U.S. has 4.2% of the global population but 46% of the top universities per Times Higher Education’s 2025 world university rankings.
Education generates a huge trade surplus for the U.S. (in case you know anyone keeping score). Per the Washington Post, “foreigners buy much more education from the United States than Americans buy from other countries. In the 2022-2023 school year, more than three times as many international students were enrolled in the United States as there were American students studying abroad.”
College makes people happier, healthier, wealthier. College graduates tend to be happier, healthier, more likely to get married, less likely to get divorced, earn more money, live longer & have more friends than non-college grads.
College is increasingly unaffordable. The cost of a college education has significantly outpaced wages and inflation in America. While many schools offer robust financial aid packages, the overall level of student debt rises inexorably (currently over $1.75 trillion).
Elite colleges are increasingly unattainable. Top tier colleges have become “luxury brands,” competing to be the most exclusive & rejecting more than 90% of applicants. Total admission capacity has trailed the growth in U.S. population, while admissions of (full-tuition-paying) international students has skyrocketed, further “crowding out” Americans.
Diminishing employment returns? Substack friend Derek Thompson this week noted an “alarming” recent trend in the current job market for college grads: “Today’s college graduates are entering an economy that is relatively worse for young college grads than any on record, going back at least four decades.” While overall college graduates remain less likely to be unemployed vs non-college grads, the most recent college grads (under 25) are more likely unemployed.
CODA: So what is to be done? How can we preserve & protect America’s crown jewels while also fixing flaws & making improvements to address 21st century challenges? (I don’t entirely know, but if anyone is looking to hire a very recent graduate who is smart & personable, LMK :-)).
VIDEO(S)
Two today! First, Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement address, considered by many the GOAT (I vote for Admiral Bill McRaven’s 2014 “Make Your Bed” speech). Second (below), my new book discussion with Dana Perino… last week I mistakenly included an older one!)
The charts are interesting but, unfortunately, backward looking. Trump has made it much less attractive for foreign students to come to the USA. According to the latest Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) data, international student enrollment in the United States declined by approximately 11% between March 2024 and March 2025. Trumps attacks and defunding of science and research has further reduced scientific studies, especially at the graduate level. A new chart for a future "Six -Chart Sunday" could explore this trend and other trends we see in less foreign tourism. Canada is a great example.
On the downside, referencing back to your chart on the "perception gap" a couple of weeks ago, college also tends to make Democrat-aligned students 300% more likely to negatively misjudge their fellow citizens and surround themselves with like-minded echo chambers. That's something that should definitely be addressed.