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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I think the expanding one's mind is part and parcel to why liberal arts grads from good colleges do as well as they do later in life both personally and professionally.

And no doubt it is a rich family's luxury to spend this kind of money, but these same schools offer up a boatload in scholarship money. I work for a non-profit and one of the student's who is part of this program is attending the same school as my kid for $2,000 per year - got the rest as a first generation college student. I know that one of the reason's we pay $60,000 per year is to enable others who can't afford it to also attend. And that is a good thing in the long run - for my kid and for the scholarship recipient.

And while there are those who can't afford it, and those who won't get tremendous scholarships, I think abandoning the brain trust of this country to the kinds of applied/vocational studies that result in quick job offers upon graduation would be short-sighted for our country in the long term. I think a strong country and the chances for a strong future require both avenues of study.[/quote]

Intellectually I'm with you. I loved my own ivory tower experience, which I spent learning about the middle ages and great literature, neither of which I use professionally. I'm very happy we can send DC to a college that's always mentioned in the top 5 nationwide and, yes, costs 60K+.

But this is still a luxury that's not available to everyone. This is because, while a lot of top colleges do provide generous financial aid, a lot of this FA comes in the form of loans. It's true that some schools like Harvard, Columbia, and others provide grant-only FA for families with income lower than some threshold like $60,000 (that was Harvard's last time I checked).

For families with HHI above $60,000, which is pretty much the definition of "middle class," the FA package is going to include a significant amount of unsubsidized Stafford loans (the subsidized Stafford loans are for families with HHI less than $50K I believe) or even other types of loans offered by the college et cetera. For many kids, the result may end up being a huge amount of college debt. Thus, the need to focus on marketable skills.[/quote]

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