I'm surprised Olin college hasn't come up in this discussion yet (http://www.olin.edu/). They're small, but essentially went with this model, at least for a while. They're more undergraduate-focused though, so I don't know if they'll ever garner the "reputation" of MIT and Stanford's impactful research programs.

I don’t disagree you couldn’t start laying the foundations of a prestigious institution, but to create one that rivals MIT, Harvard, Stanford?

We’re talking graduates who become heads of governments, CEOs of unicorns, etc.

Now you could become “the Harvard of tech” a bit easier, but would Bezos settle for that alone?

Look at this way - if you're going to send your son/daughter to a university and you're trying to decide between MIT and Bezos University (all things else considered equal). Which one is more risky? It's a no brainer. Not to mention many of these tech "gods" notoriously scrap projects when they don't work out in a short term timeframe. There's just very little reason not to send your child to a prestigious university if you have the means.

This is a great point. One reason why college is so popular is because it’s a low risk way of improving your profile.

The chances of people not knowing what MIT is or their reputation going down is very low. And that’s a big reason why people want to go there.