Is this why private universities look more appealing than public universities?

[OHMomof2]

Imagine if Harvard were free, and all of the publicity that would go with a school like Harvard eliminating tuition. You don’t think that would be a great use of their money?

I think Harvard’s acceptance rate would drop below 5% or whatever it is now, frustrating even more applicants.

One of the problems Harvard has (and all the Ivys and probably all the expensive private schools) is getting more people from poor and poorer households to apply, often because they don’t realize the great aid they could get.

Part of it is PR and Harvard could fix that by mailing posters or whatever to every high school in the country, targeting poorer ones, making sure kids DO know that.

But I think the larger problem there is that poor kids tend not to have Harvard-level stats, in part because our schools are not good in areas where most poor students live.