<p>^actually, in the top 2-1.5% 
Average income in the US for a family of 4 is around 55K.
Granted, they don’t apply to elite college very often, which may be why we have an inequality problem in this country seeing how graduating from top schools makes a difference precisely to this type of groups (first gens, middle and working class, etc). But if they do, they can attend these schools for free. The issue is that people who have heard of these schools and want them also have to pay for them because their income is four, five, six, ten times the “average” income… hence this thread. Even “wealthy” families may not have anticipated the cost of college - look at costs in 2003 to get an idea how reasonable expectations were dubfounded. Some families just may not care (such as the kid whose family was wealthy enough to pay many times over but wouldn’t pay for CMU CS where he’d gotten admitted). Some families had other priorities than their children’s higher education.
Outside of people who’ve been “Name” families for generations, nobody would consider themselves wealthy let alone extremely wealthy. Most people think they’re “middle class” because they dont really have a basis for comparison.</p>