Colleges have become a confidence game where people exchange money for membership in an exclusive club. That's not say colleges SHOULD be this way, but the reality differs from the old rhetoric.

As Peter Thiel often says, why aren't all classes at Ivy League schools simulcast on YouTube if they're so great? We have the technology, it would be a boon to all humankind. But they make money off their exclusivity. (If the teacher contact compels you, why not at least make the lectures available to all and people can pay for the tutoring, you can probably keep enrollment up that way).