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<p>Excellent point, mini.</p>
<p>My (wealthy) daughter is at boarding school, rooming with a girl with true FU money. We’re talking “horse farm in Westchester, Granddaddy endowed the science building at the family HYPS university” money. It’s been a good education for her, and a small taste of what her future roommates may experience having her as a roomie.</p>
<p>I do think there is some insensitivity. I find it hard to believe that the economic circumstances of college roommates and friends would be so hard to tell. I quickly learned which of my friends were on work-study because they talked about their jobs, or we had to schedule activities around them. Over time you would learn about their families, what their parents did, what other jobs they’d held or where they’d been. You could also see their clothes and possessions. It’s really not rocket science to figure out who is on a tight budget in college.</p>
<p>Sue - My kid is full pay and the room mates in the last couple of years have come from much richer backgrounds (not your kid’s roomie level!).</p>
<p>I have to say there is always someone richer out there, until one reaches Bill Gate’s kids.</p>
<p>jnm, the article is specifically about America’s richest colleges. The article talks about “elite” “top” colleges. It mentions Duke, Harvard, Smith, Wellesley, Brown, and Barnard, all schools that per College Navigator have average net costs in the mid $20k range for household income from $75k-$110k. Among publics, it mentions UNC and William and Mary, which have even lower net costs, at least for in-state students. The one outlier is Elon, which I personally wouldn’t consider elite/top/whatever (though I’m a fan of the school), but even its net cost is in the high $20k range for that household income bracket.</p>
<p>A lot of that aid may be from federal student loans; the only way to get a better handle would be to run some net price calculators for incomes of $75k and $110k with typical assets for those incomes. I’d be curious to know what percentage of students from $100k families find they can’t afford these schools.</p>
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<p>Amen! Something that pretty much ALL students have to learn to say. </p>
<p>I’ve made a point of telling my kids “we can’t afford that” as they were growing up, so that they’d be able to say it themselves as adults. It’s unfortunately not something that people seem to feel comfortable saying.</p>
<p>Even with saying it, not everyone responds the same way to hearing it. Some folks are better at coming up with free/inexpensive workarounds. And some just aren’t interested in accomodating. It goes both ways: if a student has the money to go on a ski weekend, they shouldn’t feel compelled to always give that up because one friend can’t afford to go. </p>
<p>Nrdsb4, thanks for pulling together that list. I figured that in most cases (e.g. Yale) the nursing programs at elite/top schools are only for grad students, so I was surprised to see some undergrad nursing options (e.g. Georgetown).</p>
<p>“There are plenty of $50K-$60K schools that give token scholarships of $10K-20K (usually a mix of need & merit-based) to $75K-$125K per year families, income of which is middle-class in my book.”</p>
<p>But the poor kids who get into these colleges (if they get in, since this group of schools is mostly need-aware) often get token scholarships, too. NYU, GW, BU, etc. are not meeting full need of the $0-10K EFC kids. If you’re intending to point out that the schools a notch below the Ivies are very expensive and not very generous, I agree. But “gapping” is a problem across the board, not just for the group you’re concerned about.</p>
<p>NRD: A few of those nursing programs at top universities are only for grad students.</p>
<p>You are correct that Penn, Georgetown, Villanova, UVa and a few other top schools offer undergrad bachelors of nursing degrees.</p>
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<p>“Yes that gazillion dollar house that’s just come up for sale in your neighborhood is spectacular, but I’m afraid our budget stops at a half gazillion.”</p>
<p>The other thing about Smith that I loved is their commitment not just to kids entering college as 18yo’s but to non traditional students. I’ve always thought that a wonderful thing.</p>
<p>I think the following article, not about college per se may illuminate the difference between the haves and have-not-as-muchs in ways other than money. The most interesting quote for me was
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<p>[Washington:</a> A world apart | The Washington Post](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2013/11/09/washington-a-world-apart/]Washington:”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2013/11/09/washington-a-world-apart/)</p>
<p>I was a FA student many years ago. There was no spending money or grocery money sometimes. I also went to one of the wealthiest LACs. Most of my friends were from Westchester, LI, and very wealthy towns in the midwest. They regularly had off campus dinners ($50-75 pre fixe) or ski trips. I couldn’t ask my parents for money, so I worked 25-30 hours a week. There were few weekends when I only had few quarters in my pocket, and those were the weekends when I had A LOT of work to do. </p>
<p>I was very grateful for the opportunity. Without my college’s generous FA I couldn’t have attended the school. I learned a lot from my friends, from what to wear to how to carry on chit chat at cocktail parties. It was at those pre fixe dinners that I really learned how to eat like a westerner - which is the right bread plate, water goblet vs wine glass, how to cut up food.</p>
<p>As far as able to do off campus interviews, all of my travel and lodging were paid for by the recruiting company. I didn’t feel I missed out because of my economic situation. </p>
<p>I think I could have stayed in my little comfort zone and not socialized because I felt intimidated, I didn’t. In my case, it was my education which allowed me to move from middle-lower class to where ever I am today. It always bother me when I read an article like this. I think there should be more articles about how FA has helped so many students who may never had an opportunity to go to college. Education is a great equalizer in this country.</p>
<p>YaleBlue, thanks for that link. Great article.</p>
<p>Wealth is very relative.</p>
<p>Friend of the family (daddy is a federal judge, mom is a high profile/high earning attorney) was accepted to several of the Ancient 8.</p>
<p>She googled her roommate … and immediately felt unworthy as roommate was obviously very VERY wealthy. Very old money. VERY.</p>
<p>99% of the population would’ve googled my friend’s family and felt equally unworthy.</p>
<p>It is what it is.</p>
<p>With that being said, I despise some of the mentality that the truely poor should be grateful at every turn with their “gifted” elite school experience. They earned their right to be there … right along w/ Muffy, Buffy and Biff.</p>
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<p>This thread is about the poor students at the wealthiest colleges like Harvard that have good financial aid to the poor students.</p>
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<p>Such schools with relatively measly financial aid would be flat out unaffordable to students from poor families.</p>
<p>Except maybe for Harvard and a few others, I suspect that at most private schools there is a “doughnut hole” of families for whom there is no need-based aid, but for whom full pay is a major challenge. Some of these people will find ways to save or borrow the money, but others will bail out to a more reasonable public, or a private where merit aid is available. But even these kids, if they manage to attend, won’t be poor like really poor kids, and won’t have all of the same issues.</p>
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<p>There will always be some subset of families who cannot afford their EFC at “meet full need” colleges (for reasonable definitions of EFC, which do vary between colleges). This applies to all income ranges, except for the EFC = $0 range (of course, there is also an ESC).</p>
<p>I would not be surprised if there were a lot of families who could easily afford their EFC, because they have been living substantially below their income and saving up considerable money for their kid’s college, but also a lot of families who are nowhere close to affording their EFC, because their spending habits consume all of their income so that any family contribution beyond the substitution of food and utilities cost of the student living at home (or continued subsidy of the student living at home and commuting) is unaffordable.</p>
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<p>Are you sure that 99% of the population would necessarily feel unworthy next to someone with higher inherited or ascribed status, as opposed to achieved status?</p>
<p>We’re full pay, but it never crossed my mind to despise those less fortunate than our family just because the student received a scholarship covering COA. Heck, my kids would PAY for a friend’s books if they did not have the funds. Not to show off, but to help their classmate succeed. I would insist upon it. I’m grateful the higher tiered schools have the means to provide scholarships to high achieving students–makes me feel good inside. I mean come on, most of the Ivies have billions in their portfolios, I see no harm of spending an extremely small percentage of the the funds on a needy student’s tuition in order to open up options for that child’s future.</p>
<p>I believe in my religion’s commandment of Tzedakah: Charity. We should all give from the heart and get excited when one less fortunate than we overcome obstacles by breaking barriers in education, employment, finances and life. A little helping hand to them is not much to give or ask for in my opinion.</p>
<p>I hope the “poor” students at these institutions find a group of accepting friends that do not belittle them for lack of money that also try to be inclusive by attending free or less costly activities and venues. And I must add, my kids are “poor” while in college, as we pay tuition, fees, room & board, but anything above that is their responsibility or a busy-body grandparent. My eldest who graduated this year, and my youngest heading out in 2 years know this. It’s their welcome to the real world without our money.</p>
<p>Great post oldfort!</p>