Yale is up there on giving generous financial aid. I believe Yale student with less than $65k family income pays $0 in tuition. Also, Yale is one of the handful that has no loan financial aid policy. I remember reading somewhere of someone who crunched numbers and found that the out-of-pocket cost would be lower when attending Yale than Penn State, a state school. So, yes, I’d say middle class kids would be able to afford Yale fine.