<p>I am grateful to Stanford and the Ivies for their shift towards giftedness, regardless of finances. Without it, I don’t see how my gifted, very hard-working daughter would be able to attend anything other than a Junior College, without an unacceptable (to me) amount of debt. </p>
<p>I grew up extremely poor; one parent mentally ill and the other a heroin addict. No one in my family had ever attended college, but through my own perseverance I became a national merit scholar and went to Berkeley, on a combination of grant and merit aid, as well as part time jobs. I applied to Ivy Leagues on a lark and was accepted, but there was no way I could afford to go; I applied out of curiosity.</p>
<p>Now, the tables have completely turned. My daughter applied to the UCs as well as Stanford and 4 of the Ivies (including Princeton) and was accepted at all. People who are not aware (and there are MANY) of the financial aid currently offered by the elite schools thought I was crazy (or at the very least, setting my daughter up for disappointment) for having her apply to such schools, and extolled the virtues of the state schools. As I expected, when the FA packages came in, the UCs were far out of reach, but Stanford and the Ivies have made college as affordable as they possibly could. What some consider the “little things” (like travel, clothing, expenses, etc.) will still be a stretch for us, but I am incredibly relieved that all of the hardships we’ve suffered will not prove defining in my daughter’s’ life, and that she can now open her own doors to the future.</p>
<p>(Though I honestly cannot comprehend that in a few short weeks, she will be leaving my nest.)</p>