“That’s pretty much the case for college financial aid today - which has the exclusive effect of pricing college higher for people with ‘greater means’ (i.e., white people). No different than having to show your 1040 form before being told what YOU will have to pay if you want that new car.”
It has been that way for over 3 decades in Californicator land.
Over 3 decades ago our oldest child had been accepted to college, and my wife and I went to a workshop on financials for parents of new college students.
As we were walking down the aisles to be seated for the second session, a group of women we knew were stomping out.
One, who could embarrass sailors with her language, told us not to waste our F ing time. If we didn’t have a line of credit to get one.
So before we sat down, I asked the moderator if we had basically the same yearly income and similar home with both of us working as the ladies walking out, could he help us?
He said no and that a line of credit was our finance option.
We said thank you and turned and left. We were followed by several other evil white families where both husband and wife worked and had a nice home.
Sounds very typical. One difference now is that the ‘top schools’ have eliminated all merit-based scholarships - which is something that happened in the past 5 years.
So, at this point, college is simply priced on (their assessment of) the ability of parents to pay. I’m convinced that doing this (prying into the resources and income of customers for the purpose of pricing) is not legal...but it’s such a fixture of society, no one’s about to challenge it.
A couple of years ago I was pushing for a raise at work; I’ve stopped since my children started reaching college age (instead just reducing my hours to the bare minimum). While they have good grades and scores, I don’t doubt they’d get less in scholarships if we had a higher income (we’ve been told as much; we have to re-submit financial info each year even though they were awarded full scholarships). I’ve never received public assistance, and I don’t view merit scholarships as such, but without them these kids wouldn’t be in college here in NJ. We have out-of-state colleges advertise on billboards here how NJ students can attend college in their states (as out-of-state students!) for less than they’ll pay in most NJ schools...