<p>Adam Vest, the Kentucky student profiled in the article, states on LinkedIn that he is going to the University of Louisville to study engineering and get a “B.E.” degree. I hope he excels, but I’m a little sad to hear that he did not end up at a highly selective school.</p>
<p>@Americanhopee you mean like New Hampshire? After all was said and done with financial aid, two private LACS were far more affordable for us vs. our instate flagship. It’s a shame. All the while our governor whines that UNH isn’t attracting STEM kids. </p>
<p>@BTMell: </p>
<p>Yes, an PennState, and Michigan, and Many Other flagships. </p>
<p>Also Bama and ASU are not affordable for everyone. If you get merit aid, yes. But if you get merit aid, statistically you are already “rich” (because SAT scores are so closely tied to income for example.)
I personally would like to see that flagships make an effort to be affordable for everyone that’s qualified and not just the best. Sure, you might have to give up the new gym or the 8th dining hall for that, but I believe that education is more important than a sushi bar.
Currently some students are picking the universities of north and South Dakota (and State) because they offer such low tuition. Meanwhile, other Unis jack up their prices as much as they think they need.
The system is broken 
Anyways, we are off-topic. Let’s close this thread. </p>
<p>@Hanna
This is why I found this article so misleading and lack of professionalism in so many ways.
@AmericanHopee
I agree, the discussion has taken a different thread of its own. LOL…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Try comparing state schools with private colleges, using College Abacus or the NPCs, for various family income levels. I’ve found that, below a fairly high income level, the so-called “full need” private colleges (<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2013/09/18/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need-2014”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2013/09/18/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need-2014</a>) tend to compete pretty well on price. Below is an example.</p>
<p>Assumptions
Maryland resident
$120,000 family income (split evenly between married parents); $5K in untaxed income
$100,000 in financial assets; $25K in cash/checking
$50K in home equity (house purchased in the year 2000 for $300K )
$12K paid in federal income taxes
2 children, 1 age 14, 1 age 16 (HS junior), 4 exemptions
HS junior has 4.0 GPA, top 5%, 1450 M+CR</p>
<p>Estimated Net Costs of Attendance
$30,147 Arizona State University ($8K total aid, out of state)
$27,322 Boston College ($27,322 total aid)
$26,361 Barnard College ($37,659 total aid)
$24,630 University of Richmond, a private LAC ($35,000 total aid)
$23,100 Stanford ($37,700 total aid)
$21,106 Amherst College ($43,300 total aid)
$20,837 University of Maryland College Park ($2.5K total aid, in-state)
$19,448 Yale ($41,852 total aid)
$19,010 Colby College ($40,500 total aid)</p>
<p>Using College Abacus, I could not get a response for the University of Alabama when I ran this query. In the recent past, when I ran a similar query but for a much less affluent family ($80K AGI), the net cost I got for Alabama was $18,104. That is less than all of the above, but not dramatically less than Colby or Yale. Using the same assumptions in that query ($80K AGI), I came up with lower net costs than Alabama’s for Vanderbilt, Colgate, Tufts, and Boston College. </p>
<p>@tk21769
Certainly looks good when you put it this way. At the end of the day its just assumptions as you call it. Wait when you receive the final offered from these schools after application, then come back and post them.
It does no one good when you base anything on assumptions.
Just my opinion.</p>
<p>Amherst continues its charm offensive and again sticks its foot firmly to the roof of its mouth, this time with the help of David Leonhardt who doubles down on his assertion (made in previous columns) that elite private college costs have not risen for the middle-class:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I guess that’s true, if you define “middle-class” as anyone making less than half a million dollars a year!</p>
<p>In NYC that’s about it.</p>
<p>@circuitrider </p>
<p>You definitely have something for Amherst. I do not know what the’ve done to you.
For some reason I don’t think Amherst asked Mr. Leonhardt to write about them. Having said that, It is well known fact that Amherst offers one of the most generous financial aid packages compared to most other colleges.</p>
<p>The author also states: “But I don’t want to suggest Amherst is typical”, although he does not clarify how it compares to other “elite private colleges”. However, he clearly differentiates Amherst as a better example, which is not exactly your interpretation.</p>
<p>If you look at net price calculator, parents’ contribution does not start until $60k annual income and then gets prorated all the way up to $200,000-220,000. I’d say if parent(s) make north of $220,000 they’re still considered middle-class and should be able to afford a full cost of a college attendance (assuming they only have 1college age student).</p>
<p>@colsearch101
</p>
<p>I’ll let one of the anonymous (and entirely neutral) commenters @ NYT take that one: "What this could really mean is if you make less than 200k a year, Amherst is basically saying to every student’s parents: “Ok, what’s the value of everything you have? We’ll take that.” </p>
<p>I like the presumption that an anonymous commentator is a “neutral” one :D</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I’m still puzzled why are you singling out Amherst, which is clearly one the better players on the field called undergraduate education? Most of the colleges are significantly worse in terms of the financial aid including the school that you so passionately defended in the other post. </p>
<p>Additionally, and I’m sure you know that, Amherst has financially blind admission policy, whereas most colleges want to look into your pockets before deciding to admit or not.</p>
<p>@colsearch101
I just ran Amherst’s NPC for a family of four making $180,000 a year and the expected family contribution came out to over $44,400.</p>
<p>Yes, and what is your point? With a total bill north of $60,000 Amherst would offer that family $16,000 loan-free assistance. Try to get that in most other schools!</p>
<p>The family still gets to keep $135,000. How is it not affordable? </p>
<p>At the end of a day, if this family wants to save, there are community colleges and state schools. However, that choice would have little to do with affordability, but rather with capital savings.</p>
<p>^ Uhh, not exactly. Assuming the feds and their state take 30%, a family with pretax income of !80,000 clears 126,000. The check to Amherst would be more than a third of their after tax income, leaving them with 81,600. One third of after tax income for someone at this income level sounds like a huge sacrifice to me.</p>
<p>I did not say it wasn’t a sacrifice, but it’s very affordable. There are other options for families who are not willing to bear the costs of a good private school as I mentioned before. There are a lot of families who live on $80,000 or less pre-tax, i.e gross income! </p>
<p>I’m still not getting your beef with Amherst specifically, which is one of the top most affordable elite schools?</p>
<p>I agree that Amherst and many comparable private LACs are very generous with need based financial aid and in general, make it possible for any accepted student to attend. I also believe that families should be willing to sacrifice if they want to send their kid to an expensive private school. BUT clearly the middle class bears the biggest burden at expensive schools like Amherst - low income families can pay nothing and high income families can pay full freight with no real sacrifice to their spending or lifestyle.</p>
<p>Welcome to America, where middle class pays for everything and carries the largest burden in US economy; not just education, taxes, healthcare etc. No disagreement here. However, Amherst at least a bit more sensitive to the issue and better than most LACs in that departments.</p>
<p>There is the option of not paying the price and going elsewhere. College is no different than any other product. People can choose to pay the price asked, or they can choose not to and go elsewhere. No one is forcing the middle class to pay for it. </p>
<p>Not sure why anyone is expecting anyone else but the middle class to bear the burden of taxes and healthcare - the middle class is where the bulk of the money is and it is the largest cohort of the population that works, so it uses the most healthcare services. In terms of economics, Amherst is not doing anything unique here in how it bills people.</p>
<p>@awcntdb WARNING: Let’s not turn this into a political discussion (see, TOS.)</p>
<p>^^ Cool. But not sure how my comment is any more political than your post. It is contains no different info than you saying the middle class bears the brunt of costs. I just give a different point-of-view. Therefore, I guess you give that warming to yourself as well. </p>