According to Moody’s Investors Service, a quarter of private American colleges in 2018 were operating in the red, spending more than they were taking in, and there were hundreds more that were barely getting by. So if you’re in a job like Boeckenstedt’s, sitting in the admissions office, sorting through applications from prospective freshmen, you don’t have the luxury, these days, of making your decisions based solely on abstract notions of merit and excellence and fairness and equity. What you’re looking for—to put it bluntly—is customers, ideally ones who will pay large amounts of money for
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