2) I think a primary motivator for the make-it-accessible-to-everyone educational philosophy is the idea of university-as-business. If you walk into a clothing store, and it’s hard for you to get your clothing that you paid for (or that you seek to pay for), you will be pissed off, and rightly so. Sickeningly, many universities believe that, because John Q. Student is paying to get a degree, that very same student has a right to get a degree with some amount of ease. Meanwhile, MIT can afford to be hardass, partly due to mindbogglingly huge endowments, and partly due to the kinds of “customers” who enter their “store”. The customers/students are PAYING for a challenge, because they EXPECT one, and don’t feel entitled to an easy time of it. Basically what I’m trying to say is that MIT is Old Navy with land mines and concealed snipers.