Amherst Cries Poverty

[circuitrider]

<p>Amherst continues its charm offensive and again sticks its foot firmly to the roof of its mouth, this time with the help of David Leonhardt who doubles down on his assertion (made in previous columns) that elite private college costs have not risen for the middle-class:</p>

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Averages, of course, hide variation. To be more specific, Amherst is more expensive than it used to be for students whose families are paying the full price — and less expensive for students whose families are not. Because the price has risen for students paying full price, it has fallen for students not paying full price. For students from low-income families, Amherst can be nearly free, partly because it does not require student loans.
Full-price students tend to come from families making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Most of those families have done quite nicely in recent decades, and they can afford Amherst.
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/upshot/amherst-college-and-financial-aid.html?rref=upshot#”>http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/upshot/amherst-college-and-financial-aid.html?rref=upshot#&lt;/a&gt;

</p>

<p>I guess that’s true, if you define “middle-class” as anyone making less than half a million dollars a year!</p>