<p>Thanks for the very good post Spider05. You definitely sound like a “satisfied customer.”</p>
<p>Honestly, the “Richmond in Reach” program is one thing that attracted us to UR–or me, anyway, as the payor. I just find myself basically wondering two things: 1)whether UR will consistently meet my daughter’s FA needs each year and 2) why not spend some of that 1.6 billion on all kids? Doesn’t Princeton, Yale and other schools with big endowments do that? (Yes, I’m aware of how much larger their endowments are.) Still…</p>
<p>This discussion does remind me some of a discussion I had a week or so ago about health insurance with other insurance professionals. We have, what, 40+ million people in this country without health insurance? (Let me preface what I’m about to say by saying that I think we should have national health coverage.) In my opinion, the insurance industry is trying. There are major numerous medical health products which are legitimately inexpensive and will cover a person in the case of a catastrophic illness–less all the bells and whistles. Do you see people lining up to buy them? H*** no. One person in the group said, and I agree with him, that we could have <em>free</em> national health insurance <em>today</em>–as long as you signed up for it–and tens of millions of people would forget/procrastinate/ whatever and end up not having it when they need it. That’s human beings for you. Recently I talked to a lady who lives in a $700,000 lake house, just bought her teenage daughter a new car, and wanted to buy health insurance for her family “because I just got a job and now we can afford it.” I wrote her a policy for her family and now it’s been put on hold because her dog got very sick. It’s great she’s taking care of her dog, but health insurance–something that’s more affordable than many people want to realize and should be near the top of the list of things we find are important–is put behind a new car, too much house than she can afford, the sick Yorkie and who-knows-what-else.</p>
<p>Long story short of what I’m trying to say is this: it <em>appears</em> that UR is making efforts to admit students without looking at their parents’ pocketbooks (how many colleges sincerely do that today?) The RIR program is something that most colleges don’t have and appears to be a very commendable program. Like the health insurance industry, UR seems to be trying (though not enough with 1.6 billion to work with?) to meet their students’ FA needs. Even if they did spend more of their endowment on kids there would still be a lack of appreciation of it from a segment of the population and some people would find all kinds of excuses not to pay for a great education. </p>
<p>Yes, I’m aware I’m speaking out of both sides of my mouth–welcome to “Make a life altering decision week” at my house.</p>