Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Not PP, but a substantial number of my HS friends, in the mixed-SES town I grew up, in attended top-20 schools: Harvard, Yale, Brown, Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth - those are the names I recall off the top of my head.

In our generation (I'm 58yo), the cost of attendance could be covered from savings, current income, the student's summer earnings, work study, and some modest loans. E.g. the expensive private SLAC I attended cost about $8,000 when I started in 1979, and I contributed about 25% of that from my summer and school-year work. Proportionally, a student today would have to contribute almost $25,000 to make the same dent in the same school's costs.

Adjusted for inflation, $8,000.00 in 1979 is equal to $29,687.80 in 2019. But that school now costs almost $75,000/year.

+1

I'm 59 and this describes the shift well.

It's really about who gets access to the elite institutions and therefore into the ruling class.

I'm in the same age bracket. My experience is that I know very successful people with community college and state college degrees. A lot of the Ivy League grads that I know honestly didn't amount to much and worked secretarial
jobs that they could have done with a high school degree. The male Ivy League grads that I know tutor for test prep companies.

I know a guy who is extremely successful who didn’t go to college but did drugs for a decade after high school. I guess that’s the best path.

Kid, I'm an Ivy grad. Two degrees when you get down to it. I'm in my 40s and after working in the professional world for 20+ years (in other words, real life) the more I came to realize an Ivy degree is nice but doesn't say much. You'd be surprised at how many Ivy grads float through life in unremarkable positions while state school grads, and not even just from the big state universities but genuine no-name local state schools in Podunkville are blossoming in their careers and making fortunes and achieving senior positions. The return on the investment for an Ivy degree over UVA or MD is minimal. If you're capable enough to go to an Ivy, you will do well in life if you apply yourself regardless of what school you went to.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t you all complain that you can’t afford a Maserati while you’re at it? people who have HHIs In the six figures complaining about not being able to pay for things is really eye opening.

This is a silly thing to say. Are you 18?

The point of this thread is that college tuition raises have so greatly outstripped inflation and salary growth that it's priced out many people who otherwise could have afforded full tuition in the past. Colleges are not Maseratis. It's become a real burden for most working families, whether upper middle or lower middle class. Not being able to afford a Maserati is not a burden.

So what? A thing you want costs $X. You cannot afford it. If this was anything else it would be a nonevent. How is this suddenly a problem to care about? A burden is not being able to afford housing or health care. Or food. Missing out on an expensive private college is not.

Are you a parent or a student? I'm mildly curious. Because children rarely understand the true cost of things or the burdens of large expenditures in real life.

At the end of the day, whether it's an expensive Ivy or a state university, college tuitions are much higher than they were in the past and the rate of tuition increases have outstripped inflation since the early 1980s. There are plenty of examples on this thread of experiences paying for colleges, whether private or public, back in the 1970s and 1980s, in a way that is not feasible. Students used to be able to pay their way through college.

That this is no longer possible for the vast majority of people, even higher income households, means it is indeed a problem to care about. Why are colleges so expensive? No one really understands why.

Even with all the talk of financial aid obscures the large middle ground demographics that used to be able to afford expensive private colleges in the past, the upper middle classes (or lower upper middle class if we want to narrow it more specifically) are now priced out - they don't get financial aid or only a token amount, and they can't really cover the full tuition without enormous financial sacrifice that is not worth it at that level. The attitude of dismissing their concerns and then whining how dare they complain they can no longer afford to pay the high college tuition is a bit of a Marie Antoinette thing to do.

Funnily enough, all the defensive posters talking about the amazing financial aids at the Ivies don't talk about it relative to their own kids. Did their kids get amazing packages? Or are they just making an assumption without firsthand experience? There are certainly those who get full or substantial financial packages but the funny thing is that package offers can and do vary widely between the Ivies for admitted students and that alone tells you something about not taking it for granted anyone with a HHI under x amount is getting a full ride, or even with a HHI of 150 or whatever they'll get the aid they need to make it work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Not PP, but a substantial number of my HS friends, in the mixed-SES town I grew up, in attended top-20 schools: Harvard, Yale, Brown, Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth - those are the names I recall off the top of my head.

In our generation (I'm 58yo), the cost of attendance could be covered from savings, current income, the student's summer earnings, work study, and some modest loans. E.g. the expensive private SLAC I attended cost about $8,000 when I started in 1979, and I contributed about 25% of that from my summer and school-year work. Proportionally, a student today would have to contribute almost $25,000 to make the same dent in the same school's costs.

Adjusted for inflation, $8,000.00 in 1979 is equal to $29,687.80 in 2019. But that school now costs almost $75,000/year.

+1

I'm 59 and this describes the shift well.

It's really about who gets access to the elite institutions and therefore into the ruling class.

I'm in the same age bracket. My experience is that I know very successful people with community college and state college degrees. A lot of the Ivy League grads that I know honestly didn't amount to much and worked secretarial
jobs that they could have done with a high school degree. The male Ivy League grads that I know tutor for test prep companies.

I know a guy who is extremely successful who didn’t go to college but did drugs for a decade after high school. I guess that’s the best path.

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why people on these boards think they "deserve" private l-12 schooling and private college as a human right.

It's ridiculous.

Do you also deserve a mansion in Beverly Hills?

Oh, Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes-Benz? My friends all drive Porsches I must make amends

Anonymous wrote:With the expansion of financial aid at the elite colleges to eliminate student loans and give significant grants to families with incomes under $150-200k, this entire thread is driven by misperceptions, not reality. Families with multiple children in college are given especially large financial aid packages. At my Ivy alma mater, a student from the typical family earning $150k gets a university grant that covers nearly all of tuition. For them, the cost of attendance is room, board, books, and personal expenses, which is pretty much the same at every college, elite or not, public or private.

In contrast, those students would not be eligible for any financial aid at their in-state flagship and end up paying as much or not more. If anything, the real tragedy is the dramatic erosion of state support for public universities. Even worse are policies that have diverted need-based support to merit aid to that gives public dollars to families that don't need it ahead of families that do.

+1

I have run those net price calculators. I am.in that income range. Private elite is cheaper than anything else

Anonymous wrote:At the end of the day, elite private schools are not the sole ticket to a meaningful and satisfying life, and they certainly don’t guarantee one.

+1

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why people on these boards think they "deserve" private l-12 schooling and private college as a human right.

It's ridiculous.

Do you also deserve a mansion in Beverly Hills?

+1

At the end of the day, elite private schools are not the sole ticket to a meaningful and satisfying life, and they certainly don’t guarantee one.

I don't understand why people on these boards think they "deserve" private l-12 schooling and private college as a human right.

It's ridiculous.

Do you also deserve a mansion in Beverly Hills?

Anonymous wrote:“Can afford” is subjective, and what a financial aid office thinks may be different than what a family thinks. At elites - the subject of this thread - the financial aid is more generous than anywhere else by far.

One fortunate thing is that any family with an elite-worthy kid can get merit aid at a lot of excellent schools if they decide they do not want to be full pay.

A second fortunate thing is that any family who does not qualify for financial aid at an elite certainly can afford many colleges with merit aid, which may include in-state options making the top line costs less to begin with.

Any family with those three options: Pay for an Ivy, get merit aid elsewhere, pay less at your in-state school - is a very lucky family indeed.

No one disputes that such family has options. But that's not the point of the OP or the comments above.

“Can afford” is subjective, and what a financial aid office thinks may be different than what a family thinks. At elites - the subject of this thread - the financial aid is more generous than anywhere else by far.

One fortunate thing is that any family with an elite-worthy kid can get merit aid at a lot of excellent schools if they decide they do not want to be full pay.

A second fortunate thing is that any family who does not qualify for financial aid at an elite certainly can afford many colleges with merit aid, which may include in-state options making the top line costs less to begin with.

Any family with those three options: Pay for an Ivy, get merit aid elsewhere, pay less at your in-state school - is a very lucky family indeed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t you all complain that you can’t afford a Maserati while you’re at it? people who have HHIs In the six figures complaining about not being able to pay for things is really eye opening.

This is a silly thing to say. Are you 18?

The point of this thread is that college tuition raises have so greatly outstripped inflation and salary growth that it's priced out many people who otherwise could have afforded full tuition in the past. Colleges are not Maseratis. It's become a real burden for most working families, whether upper middle or lower middle class. Not being able to afford a Maserati is not a burden.

So what? A thing you want costs $X. You cannot afford it. If this was anything else it would be a nonevent. How is this suddenly a problem to care about? A burden is not being able to afford housing or health care. Or food. Missing out on an expensive private college is not.

Anonymous wrote:

Not PP, but a substantial number of my HS friends, in the mixed-SES town I grew up, in attended top-20 schools: Harvard, Yale, Brown, Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth - those are the names I recall off the top of my head.

In our generation (I'm 58yo), the cost of attendance could be covered from savings, current income, the student's summer earnings, work study, and some modest loans. E.g. the expensive private SLAC I attended cost about $8,000 when I started in 1979, and I contributed about 25% of that from my summer and school-year work. Proportionally, a student today would have to contribute almost $25,000 to make the same dent in the same school's costs.

Adjusted for inflation, $8,000.00 in 1979 is equal to $29,687.80 in 2019. But that school now costs almost $75,000/year.

+1

I'm 59 and this describes the shift well.

It's really about who gets access to the elite institutions and therefore into the ruling class.

I'm in the same age bracket. My experience is that I know very successful people with community college and state college degrees. A lot of the Ivy League grads that I know honestly didn't amount to much and worked secretarial
jobs that they could have done with a high school degree. The male Ivy League grads that I know tutor for test prep companies.

With the expansion of financial aid at the elite colleges to eliminate student loans and give significant grants to families with incomes under $150-200k, this entire thread is driven by misperceptions, not reality. Families with multiple children in college are given especially large financial aid packages. At my Ivy alma mater, a student from the typical family earning $150k gets a university grant that covers nearly all of tuition. For them, the cost of attendance is room, board, books, and personal expenses, which is pretty much the same at every college, elite or not, public or private.

In contrast, those students would not be eligible for any financial aid at their in-state flagship and end up paying as much or not more. If anything, the real tragedy is the dramatic erosion of state support for public universities. Even worse are policies that have diverted need-based support to merit aid to that gives public dollars to families that don't need it ahead of families that do.

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t you all complain that you can’t afford a Maserati while you’re at it? people who have HHIs In the six figures complaining about not being able to pay for things is really eye opening.

This is a silly thing to say. Are you 18?

The point of this thread is that college tuition raises have so greatly outstripped inflation and salary growth that it's priced out many people who otherwise could have afforded full tuition in the past. Colleges are not Maseratis. It's become a real burden for most working families, whether upper middle or lower middle class. Not being able to afford a Maserati is not a burden.