<p>“No one is entitled to financial aid–it’s a gift”</p>
<p>No. </p>
<p>Financial aid should be in place to ensure equal opportunity for all. If you want system which favors the rich and keeps the poor at a perpetual disadvantage, a time machine to to 1500s England is in order.</p>
<p>" If you can’t afford it, or if you think the place is “gouging” families, go elsewhere."</p>
<p>Oftentimes private colleges give the MOST financial aid and are the MOST affordable option. </p>
<p>Thankfully, many public flagships are able to keep tuition low and financial aid reasonably high. Many kids can make it through, especially with 2 yrs of community college, even from very limited means. But states still exist that do not adequately fund higher education, and in that case lower-income people are shut out.</p>
<p>I do believe colleges (and some legislators) should be ashamed of themselves. There is no doubt higher education is usually a requirement for the best jobs in this society, yet at the same time they are often overpriced, elitist and classist, and are foregoing their duties to educate our nation’s youth but shutting out thousands.</p>