What schools are UC Berkeley's peers?

themegastud
Mon, 20 Jun 2005 02:08:13 +0000

Alexandre,

I agree with you… to a point. Perhaps I misrepresented the situation. There is indeed an income range (generally the mid to upper-middle class) that doesn’t benefit sufficiently from need-based financial aid because they make too much money, yet still makes too little money to send kids to elite private schools without noticing a significant dropoff on disposable income.

However, there is a largely incorrect notion out there - one that is especially predominant in states such as California that have top-tier public institutions - that a public school will always be cheaper than an elite private. Even in the cases of those in the mid to upper-middle class income range, one can never say this for sure without comparing the financial aid packages of both.