How many are paying sticker price?

ucbalumnus
Sat, 21 Apr 2018 23:59:24 +0000

Happytimes2001:

Right now the equation just doesn’t work. There are tons of middle class kids who make economic decisions to forgo the best school in favor of the most affordable school. While the Pell grant recipients and top income folks have no worries. I was a Pell grant recipient and know well that someone from an underprivileged background is going to win the $ hands down each time. They will clean up and have very little debt if they are a high stat student. That is just not the case for a kid in the donut hole. There is very little merit money out there and that isn’t a good thing.

If “donut hole” means the lower part of the no-FA income/wealth range (probably top ~3% or $250,000+, above the “Romney middle class”), then note that kids from those families are far better represented at elite private schools than those with Pell grants (probably bottom half or so). No-FA students make up around half of those at the elite private schools, while Pell grant students usually make up one tenth to one fifth. As discussed frequently on these forums, high stats is no guarantee of admission to an elite private school; the high income “donut hole” family kids have substantial advantages in getting admitted to such schools compared to the Pell grant kids.

In terms of merit scholarships for stats alone, students from both high and middle/low income families can seek them, so it is not like the “donut hole” family kids are any worse off in this respect than the Pell grant kids. But it is very likely that the “donut hole” family kids’ parents will be able to contribute college money that gives them far more college choices than the Pell grant kids, who are more likely to have a choice limited to (a) elite private school with good FA (if in the unlikely event they are admitted), (b) full ride merit (automatic ones exist, but are not that common; competitive ones should be seen as reaches), or (c) commuting to a local community college or (probably non-flagship) state university.