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Okay, I'm fine with the Presidential and other merit scholarships, but it seems like they just give grants away like candy to the poor. Honestly, I know people who live below the poverty line and attend USC because they are so poor that they only have to take 8k in loans a year.
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I am NOT defending Binks, but people who responded that $8k of loans is a large burden for a poor family are missing the point. The loans are for the attendee, not the family. With a college education that loan amount is tolerable and should be repayable within 5 years of graduation without too much trouble.
Compare that to the situation of a solidly middle-class family earning $80-$100k. Zero finaid puts them in the hole for $250k, and often middle-class kids will graduate with significant loan burden ($50k+) because of a misguided desire to attend a specific university. The end result is that (a) the family has emptied out all bank accounts to fund the education of the child (b) the child graduates with a loan burden that will drive them under if anything unexpected happens.
Both graduates are independent adults past the age of majority, their family's financial situation has little relevance to their loan burden, unless the implicit expectation is that the family continues to carry the loan burden. This seems to be what many universities are assuming.
The plight of the poor is significant and they deserve the help they get. However, the statement that in order to attend a private university you either have to be poor (<$50k annual income) or rich (>$200k annual income) is a correct one. Everyone in the middle simply gets squeezed out.