Some higher education pundits argue that colleges are doomed to the fate of the music industry, in that the internet will force colleges to “unbundle” their degrees into customizable formats. This logic is flawed, according to the Atlantic’s Derek Newton: “A music purchase is an entertainment indulgence with minimal investment and limited risk of bad decision making. Choosing the right college, on the other hand, often involves years of research and planning.” Moreover, in higher education, notions of efficiency are highly subjective: “On campus, even business students, for example, are typically required to study literature and other topics in the humanities. Some may call that inefficient; others call it essential.”
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Graduating with a bachelor's degree in four years seems to the exception these days, but students' chances of graduating on time are almost twice as high at private colleges and universities as they are at public institutions. In fact, 36% of full-time students at prestigious public colleges and universities graduate on time; in contrast, 60% of students who enrolled in private colleges in 2006 graduated in 4 years.  
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