I have no problem with the data qua data or with trying get one’s arms around a phenomenon. I do wonder, however, whether any of this is a functionality of prestige. Every decision I’ve encountered on this board, at this time of the year, usually boils down to which school is offering the most generous FA to an otherwise middle-class family (and g-d forbid their child should evince the slightest desire to attend medical school.) Is that the siren song of prestige, or merely the white knuckled terror of middle-class anxiety calling?