Brad DeLong explains the expectations he has for the students in his course on the world economy in the 20th century:

This is the University of California at Berkeley, the finest public university in the world. You are all upper-middle class or upper class–if not in the size of your parents’ houses in your options and expections–and thus much richer than the average taxpayer of California. Yet, even at today’s reduced funding levels, the taxpayers of California are spending $10,000 a year subsidizing your education. Why are they doing this? Because they believe that if your brains get crammed full of knowledge and skills than many of you will do great things that will redound to the benefit of the state, the country, and the world. Therefore it is my business to cram your brains full of knowledge and skills. It is then your business to go out and try to do great things–and if those great things happen to involve a lot of money, remember the investment that the poorer-than-you taxpayers of California made in your education, and pass some of the resources you will earn on to your successors here at Berkeley.