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[quote=Anonymous][quote]
Anonymous wrote:

I'm the same as you, but I'm not so sure it is ridiculous for them to expect that families making $280k should pay the same as a family making $800k. I think of these $80k per year colleges as a luxury car. There are people that pay $80k for a car. I suppose I could do that-- you could do that-- but I don't because the used Toyota Rav4 is fine. Likewise, I could pay $80k per year for my kids to go to a college, but why would I when they can get just as good an education at a public school.

Why do these schools decide to not help upper-middle class attend? Maybe those endowments are restricted and can only be used to help families that are truly middle class? OR maybe the odd mix of obscenely wealthy and middle class/ poor kids and nothing in between is working for them. Gives the student body une certaine frissione that having a bunch of upper-middle class people would cause to go flat.

The fact is kids in upper-middle class families will largely do very well at whatever school they attend. They don't need the access that less affluent kids require. For a school to brag about rags-to-riches stories the kids actually needs to be in rags, and $280k per year families ain't going to bring it.

Anyway, if your argument is that private elite schools should give a better deal to families making $280k than for $800k, where does that kind of thinking end? Tesla has luxury cars and the company has taken federal money for research-- should society require Tesla to charge families making $800k more for their luxury car than families making $280k? IF not, why would we require Harvard to do it? To my mind Harvard is a luxury just like a luxury car.

Well said!

Nobody is entitled to an elite education. Plenty of excellent options that will be affordable.
But if you really want it, just like a luxury car, you can choose to divert your money to pay for it.

But no, someone making $800k should not pay more than someone making $280k. That is not poor, not MC. Wealthy do not need to subdidize your kids education when you at in top 5%[/quote]

All of this is true, but I think that implementing pricing and policies that exclude a significant part of the American middle class from accessing top 25 schools is not a good political move, as it plays to the allegations of elitism that are routinely hurled at those institutions.   And it isn't really the $280K family that is the cut-off.  It is the families below that who are being told that they qualify for a sliver of aid, but nothing close to what they need.  FAFSA also rewards the spendthrifts and penalizes the savers.  A 50 yo couple who have saved 10-20% of their income over the years qualifies for nothing while the couple who spent every dime will.[/quote]

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