In my time on CC, I have read lots about “donut hole” families, those who make too much to qualify for much, if any, financial aid, but for whom the sticker price of many private colleges is out of reach. Depending on the generosity of the institution of higher ed, that hole can be bigger of smaller, but it’s an issue for many. And these are not families with millions in trust funds but lower-paid careers or folks who did FIRE and have millions in retirement assets that are outside of traditional retirement vehicles. I will link my rant again, but families whose incomes are in the top 10-15% nationally who have an appropriately-sized emergency fund, plus potential savings for healthcare deductibles and/or replacement of modest cars will often be considered not to have “typical” assets by some of the schools who advertise “free tuition” or similar deals for people with incomes below $200k.
So nobody is going to cry a river for families with $190k in annual income and their financial constraints, but a large percentage of those families are sending their kids to college, and having schools that are sharing what kind of cost they can expect to pay in a more transparent fashion is helpful for those families
I think of such policies less as financial aid and more as financial transparency. For a number of years, colleges have focused on the discounting model, whether providing need-based aid to families or offering “scholarships” to students. At some schools it really is a meritorious award for a small percentage of students, while at many others nearly everybody receives a “merit” award because many families prefer the idea of paying $60k for a $90k education, than paying $60k for a school that charges $60k, even if the outlay of funds is the same.
As St. Lawrence put it (emphasis added), “The Affordability Compass is our commitment to helping families navigate the cost of a St. Lawrence University education with confidence and clarity.” For families that don’t know about NPCs or think they make too much money or whatever, these schools are trying to show how they can be more affordable than their sticker prices indicate.
Most college students do not attend highly-selective private colleges. Most highly-selective private colleges reject over 90% of their applicants, even though a significant chunk of that 90% are likely to be highly-qualified applicants. So what happens to the rest of college students that don’t attend colleges with 10-figure endowments?