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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No, I don't believe most other schools will follow because they don't have the endowment to afford it so it will only put the other schools in more dire straights as they try to keep up and can't.  [/quote]
Of course not all schools can do this, but one substantial benefit is that it would put pressure on other schools to keep their tuition costs down. That is unquestionably a good thing. [/quote]

Guys, are you impervious to facts? Harvard already offers the most generous financial aid packages out there. That hasn't put pressure on other schools to keep the list price of tuition down. Why would free tuition at Harvard do so?

What generous financial aid at Harvard and other elite schools DOES do is put pressure on "lesser" colleges to offer merit scholarships to higher-performing students to try to draw them away from the elites. Free tuition at Harvard might increase the scholarship amounts awarded to better applicants at, say, Tulane. But is this what we are worried about when we wring our hands about the cost of college? That students in the top 10% of their DC-area high schools are not getting big enough scholarship offers from Tulane?

It seems to me our concerns should be focused on more average performing, middle/lower income students who don't have any kind of money being thrown at them because (a) they aren't qualified for admittance at the elite schools that meet all financial need and (b) they aren't candidates for merit scholarships at other schools. Compared with higher achieving students, these average Joes often spend more money to attend not-great schools (often because they take longer to graduate), are much more likely to borrow to attend college (because their financial aid packages are more likely to include loans), are much more likely over-borrow for college (because they are lower income), and are much less likely to get a degree at all. Free tuition at Harvard doesn't help these students AT ALL.  If the prospect of free tuition at Harvard somehow inspires them to apply, they will be wasting their time and money. They are not candidates for admission to Harvard, at any price. Period.

What a freaking distraction this issue is.[/quote]

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