Dad II

hi, taxguy, you should run for a political position sometime.

First of all, the # of students who could get a full ride (merit aid) is very small. I don't have hard data but I would guess that is less than 0.5%. I would also think the # of students who got into 200,000 debt for college is equally small. Those who got in the expensive schools either have means to pay for it or have the opportunity of significant amount of financial aid.

Secondly, since there are only 1% or so HS graduates attends one of the top 10 private schools, you will have much less chance to meet them in your daily life. If you have 2 out of 100 clients who graduate from an Ivy or similar school, you have met more than average.

In other words, you can't really go by the absolute # of this or that w/o considering the base.

The pure power of resources at the top private Universities gives the attending student a rather different style of college experiences.