[old and tired]

But why should they offer anyone free tuition? If people are willing to pay their exorbitant fees, of course they're going to charge them. A lot of the schools with these huge endowments already offer tremendous financial aid packages. What these schools have decided is that people who earn over a certain amount can and should pay more. They'll change their policies and stop charging tuition when the upper middle class - who don't qualify for their tremendous aid - stop taking on home equity loans to allow their kids to go there.

And I believe the Harvards and the Princetons of the world will stop charging tuition soon - they're losing the upper middle class to the state schools. If you go to the Penn State main campus and look around, there is a lot of upper middle class privilege there. They have parents who are looking at the 28 grand price tag and seeing a bargain.

[Sooth2222]

And I believe the Harvards and the Princetons of the world will stop charging tuition soon - they're losing the upper middle class to the state schools.

The "elite" colleges have more highly qualified applicants than they can possibly admit. I've read that Harvard says that they could fill several virtually identified and equally qualified classes from the applicant pool. Acceptance is a crap shoot for middle class white kids who are only smart and talented.

The other little secret is that the elite schools with large endowments will meet "100% of financial need". The end result is that Harvard, Yale and Princeton students generally graduate with very little debt. The published tuitions are in effect a "success tax" on mom and dad if they have done okay themselves.

Back to the OT -- just by using some financial smarts and attending community college for two years and State U for the last two, it's quite possible to graduate with a bachelor's degree and very little debt in the USA right now.