The skyrocketing cost of college education in the the United States has led many to speculate on how costs can be brought under control or if they'll continue to rise. Neuroscientist and fiction author Erik Hoel wrote the following about college education in the year 2050 in a blog post published August 25, 2021

The education bubble will have popped and in 2050 the majority of education will take place online. A combination of private tutors and MOOCs and testing centers will have become the most common form of education. Students will compile credits from these different courses for different degrees. Colleges and universities will have lost much of their prestige and most mid-tier institutions will be closed or closing.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) there were 768 public 4 year colleges in the US in the 2018-2019 school year. If this number fell under 400 by 2050, that would be a drop of 48%.

By 2050, will there be fewer than 400 public 4-year colleges in the US?

This question will resolve as Yes if there are fewer than 400 public 4-year colleges in the US in any year after 2018, up to and including the 2049-2050 school term, according to NCES. If NCES no longer reports this data, other credible sources may be used. If the school year is no longer over a similar period, the final term can be any period which ends in 2050.