<p>That’s a great point. Harvard, Yale, and Princeton will simply pull financial if not reputational rank on the other schools (I think Columbia offers a comparable education, but that’s not the point; the impression is what matters). Columbia seems to be threatened if it keeps EA; but it may be even more so if it drops it. The endowment point is a given; but what could Columbia do at this point to catch up with the other schools? Which leaves leadership: What could Columbia’s leadership do of a non-financial nature to keep Columbia in the game (that over the last two decades, it climbed back into)? I think that one thing Columbia has to do is make even more of its presence in New York. That constitutes a “shadow endowment” that the other schools cannot remotely match. But how to do it is the question.</p>