Reply to Are top private colleges mainly for poor people now?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just to confirm--OP and a few others on this thread are arguing that low-middle or middle-class families (approx. $65-150K) are poor and therefore, 2/3 of elite schools are full of poor (lower class) kids??

OP, do you consider everyone under $200K poor? So there are only the lower class, UMC, and the UC/wealthy?

[/quote]

I would consider someone poor who qualifies for financial aid that is basically or equal to a full ride. Perhaps poor is too harsh. I don’t mean it in the sense of indigent. I mean it in the sense of someone who has minimal ability to accumulate savings, is basically just surviving, and has insubstantial assets. [/quote]
+1 "poor" is a relative term, as is "rich".

If you're getting financial aid, then you are "poor" to those expensive colleges.[/quote]

I think the big picture is- you have to come from fairly modest circumstances to be able to afford it, because most or all of your costs will be covered. Alternatively, you can be very affluent such that 80k is not a big deal. But there is a very large segment of the population that is “doing okay” but for whom it’s just not practical to stretch their personal finances to pay full price, go into debt, etc.  Full price for a private education is a lot higher than it was 30 years ago because the price tag has surpassed the inflation rate and this has compounded.  At the same time, financial aid for the bottom segment has become a lot more generous as endowments have exploded. But instead of using the endowment money to slow down tuition hikes, they use it to cover costs for lower income students. The end result is a very bifurcated class profile where the majority of the class comes from modest (if not poor) backgrounds and then for the most part the rest of the class is loaded. But most of the kids come from modest/poor backgrounds- whatever adjective you want to use. As opposed to middle class or upper middle class backgrounds which is how it was historically. [/quote]

Do you have data to back this up?  Because I believe you are wrong.  [/quote]

Stop baiting people. Go read a book. [/quote]

We make $300k, have two kids and plan to send them to private college if they get into a top tier school.  One already has. The other is several years away from applying.  We have been planning their whole lives for this.  Friends whose salaries are likely similar are doing the same thing.  I do believe there are families with similar salaries who look at the cost and say no way (which is a smart and reasonable position).   But I don’t believe Harvard has kids whose families make less than $200k or more than $600k with no one in between. I actually expect those kids are over represented in their numbers. [/quote]

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