<p>“Families at low incomes and super rich incomes get tremendous bargains sending their kids to private college.”</p>
<p>Access to college, private or public is based primarily on income/wealth. The bargains for low income families and even average income families are few and far between and usually require scores and grades in the top 5% of applicants. A very small percentage low income applicants, maybe five thousand a year, gain access to the need based schools and a “bargain” education. The other 95% either have limited college access, no access or access with huge debt. At $200K, families will have far more college options, both private and public than a low income or even average income kid. </p>
<p>The FA model was developed 40 years ago when sufficient aid and reasonable prices allowed students from all income levels to attend the colleges based on their qualifications. COA’s have risen dramatically at both publics and privates, while government aid and need based aid at most institutions has remained relatively flat. Now we have tuition discounting, a trend towards merit based FA awards and an accelerating stratification of college access along income lines. And in the last few years an increasing chorus of complaints from upper middle class families about cost. </p>
<p>While I sympathize with higher income families who resent paying full price for a need based school, there are many, many other options available for those families. If you want to turn down H, Y or P there are dozens of other top colleges offering substantial merit deals to good students from upper middle class families. Compared to the very limited options facing most low income and average income families, the complaining rings hollow. Yes, the system is failing but projecting advantage to the people at the bottom of the access ladder just distorts reality.</p>