Harvard may be right in thinking that they can’t win with critics who question their priorities in jacking up financial aid for family incomes approaching $200,000, but those naysayers have a point. The national demi-crisis of college affordability isn’t going to be solved by a few elite schools subsidizing the college educations of the children of the almost rich, no matter how well intentioned these efforts might be. The painful truth is that Americans are increasingly abandoning their commitment to quality primary and secondary education and as a result middle class families feel pressed to send their kids to private schools. That makes them less able to afford the tuition tab at those elite higher education institutions to which they have always aspired. That’s the crunch that Harvard and Yale are addressing.
While need-based aid has been targeted at the poorest students, maybe what we’re now saying is that we’ve run out of qualified poor students to admit. Providing extensive financial aid to upper-middle class families won’t solve that problem for a minute!
Read more at… Heftier Aid at Elite Colleges Draws Praise, Rebukes – washingtonpost.com
Filed under: Ivy League, financial aid
