Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and other prestigious universities most likely are not concerned about the financial issue. Annually, huge amount of donations are given to these prestigious universities by famous philanthropist. In contrast, there are many small colleges in state of deficit being impossible to give out financial aid to poor regional students to enroll the colleges. It's normal for abundant philanthropists to invest their money in prestigious universities to grow competent human resources for the future. Nobody can blame these philanthropists since they are actually donating their own money without vivid benefits. However, we should rather rasie a question. What about the other half of colleges who actually need donations?
In 1990s, Hank Rowan donated $100 millon to a college in New Jersey, a very shocking event back in the time. Until then, nobody thought of giving large amount of money to so-called infamous colleges, viewed as a waste of money. The trend sitll exists today, looking at the amount of money famous universities are obtaining compared to small colleges. Obviously, donating money to MIT, Standford, and CALTEC will bring quick result in scientific research, using already set cutting edge lab systems. If we only regard the quick research result, a college in New Jersey might be one of the most stupid choices the donators could make. However, the point that I want to convey is sometimes the world needs dumb, inefficient policies to help everyone, not someone.
The basic principle of education is that everyone should at least have the equal opportunity to get educated. Local colleges are the places that could provide those opportunities. However, the problem is that they are always short in money, unable to provide financial aid to these students. If the donations given to famous universities that will have enough money in anyway, the inequality of education will be mitigated. It's a dumb decision regarding the result. However, sometimes we need dumb decisions to achieve something clever.
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