<p>Its not just financial aid that middle class gets screwed. If someone is poor, they often are the first one in their family to go to college, which helps them get in. If they are rich, many times they are legacys to prestigious schools</p>
<p>Those programs where people who make under 40 grand don't pay are adjusted for all the other brackets. I've read the financial aid initiatives of those schools and they always mention adjustments for the other brackets. </p>
<p>You want to talk about fairness? Fine let's talk about fairness. How fair is it to grow up in a family that makes under 40 grand? How fair is it to not have enough money to buy your ap review books for instance because you have to pay your rent? How fair is any of this stuff? It's a capitalist society that we live in. Cornell provides a service, you must pay for that service. People of the upper and middle classes have a greater ability to pay than those of the lower class, so the burdern falls with them. Since people of the upper class are wealthy, they incur less debt. These are simply facts of life. </p>
<p>I didn't mention poor families to guilt trip anyone or accuse anyone of turning their backs on people who have it a lot worse off. I mentioned people like that to point out how ridiculous it is to discuss fairness. What is fairness? Fairness doesn't exist, I'm sorry. Everybody who can pay has to pay.</p>
<p>Tivesrx, yeah the middle class is really getting hammered there. <strong><em>ing poor kids, first to go to college and have the chance of a real career and a shot at climbing the social ladder. What *</em></strong>**s, right? Who told them to be smart despite all the odds against them and be the first person to go to college and get a lot of financial aid and put pressure on the middle class. Those dickheads.</p>
<p>Our EFC went up like 3,000 dollars, good times.</p>
<p>I've probably been on both ends of the spectrum. We were so poor we had to borrow money from friends just to pay for the plane tickets to come to the US 15 years ago. Last year, my parents spent $1.3 million on a house in the Bay Area. Our lifestyle is strictly middle class though since ALL of our money is tied up in the house. </p>
<p>I'd still rather be rich than poor. Paid for all my SAT and MCAT classes. It's tough, as a university, to distinguish between poor people who've worked hard and just couldn't break out and poor people who are just looking for hand-outs.</p>
<p>I don't buy the sob sorry for being poor. Every american has the opportunity for advancement, yes there are many obstacles in life that things don't work out(race, gender, nationality,ect). The problem i find in all is this is that nobody is climbimg the social ladder. the middle class are not becoming the ultra rich they are staying right in the middle the poor is moving up to middle thats all the mobility going on. If the government and institutions would let the capitalisic system prevail then there wouldn't be such an inflation is college cost. i believe they are encouraging the system(class division) instead of helping.</p>
<p>The middle class does get screwed. Kids coming from families with under $50,000 annual income (well above the national average I must add), can now attend Harvard, Stanford, Penn, etc. for next to nothing, no loans, etc. Kids coming from a family with a six-figure income get very little in aid, have to take out tens of thousands of dollars in loans.</p>
<p>So basically, if we are to consider $50,000 'low-income,' a kid who can have a job and graduate with maybe $20,000 in the black (and $5000 is probably a low number for working year-round). Someone with a $100,000 income is expected to pay almost $45,000 a year (almost every additional dollar the family makes above $50,000), and will probaby have to take out large loans in order to finance their education. I'd say at an Ivy League school it would be pretty easy for a student to rack up $50,000 in debt this way after four years of school.</p>
<p>Now I'm not asking for lower class kids to have to take out $20,000 in loans a year. That wouldn't be right. But upon graduation, these kids are going to be in the same situation as everyone else graduating, getting jobs paying at about the same rate. Including maybe $5000 of low-interest loans a year sounds perfectly reasonable.</p>
<p>I'm sure you guys will disagree with me, but whatever. I guess in America the middle and lower classes have to fight to the death for whatever scraps are thrown down by the top.</p>
<p>
I know you don't mean any offense and I don't take any. But I feel that I should explain my family situation. My mom died of stomach cancer during the middle of 10th grade. And soon after that, my dad's small business went out of business. Before all of this happened, we were also middle class making around 50-70K a year and college definitely would have been a burden like the rest of you guys are dealing with. Believe me, I'd rather have my mom alive than having to live without her for the rest of my life. Luckily for us, our extended family is helping take care of us so it's not too bad.</p>
<p>Thats not what pvoendski or any of us meant by the poor getting a break. Tun your parent are very responsible people. we object to people who don't try to better themselves or use thier disavantages as excuses instead of taling action to better themselves. u had tragic circumstances that were life changing to u. we know these things happen to people all the time and they should have opportunities like the rest of us.</p>
<p>family income ~ 90k</p>
<p>EFC = 26k
student loans = 11k</p>
<p>sounds about right?</p>
<p>abike11, are you serious? Do you know anything about socioeconomics? In America, the poor are and have been getting poorer since the 70s while the rich, since the beginning of this country have always been getting richer. You're right, the middle class is pretty static. But give me a break with that neoconservative ********. Yes there are a lot of lowlives in this country but that small percentage of lowlives doesn't make it OK for you to slight the hardships of the poor in America.</p>
<p>To the individual who claimed an income of under 50 grand is a life of comfort... are you insane? This is an income of 50 grand, no money in the bank, no property values, no assets, no bonds, no stocks. Less than 50 grand a year. Do you make less than 50 grand? Are you in a position to postulate about the ease of living at that income level? </p>
<p>Sometimes I can't believe the self-preservationist, whiny ******** that I read on this site. If they're going to school without debt, stop whining. At least you're going to Cornell and at least your life wasn't as goddamn economically difficult.</p>
<p>Inheritances are nice.</p>
<p>Im all for making sure low income students can afford to go to college, but think about it. How would you feel if you get into the college of your dreams, but cant go because you cant afford, simply because your middle class. Nobody can say that a poor person deserves to go to college more than a middle class person or vice versa. Its the concept of the rich and the poor getting all the opportunities to go to college while the majority of middle class get screwed. And dont give me crap about saying poor people get opportunities. If your poor and have the drive to go to college you will, and chances are you'll go for free. Do you think its fair for a kid to graduate with no assets, starting salary wage, and $60,000 at least in the whole? I guarentee you, I'll be in much worse financial shape when I graduate then any low income student. And dont try to guilt trip me and turn this around to make it sound like im out to get the poor. Its not there fault, its the systems fault.</p>
<p>You're right, it's the fault of the system. I do empathize with those of the middle class who get squeezed with loans. I could say the same thing about middle class students though--if you have the drive, you can eliminate all that debt after you attend school. It's similar to the drive necessary to overcome economic hardship and poverty. I stated earlier that I'm not out to guilt trip anyone. The problem with some of the statements made in this thread is that the complaints are coupled with resentment of the opportunities given to the poorer students. </p>
<p>You asked if I think any of this is fair. None of this is fair. Expecting fairness is naive. Whining about fairness is immature. Whining about the poor receiving benefits is offensive.</p>
<p>How about students who have divorced parents? Even more difficult. I don't know how the govt. figures it out but even though you have two people earning incomes, they also have two households to maintain, two car insurance premiums, two medical insurance premiums etc. Basically, the expenses are almost double. Add to that the non-custodial parent who makes a decent living (which the govt. takes into consideration for f.a. purposes) but doesn't contribute to the kid's college education although they maintain a relationship with the student. Furthermore, if your parents are divorced and you live with your mom and she got remarried, they take your stepdad's income into consideration. That is why my mom never got remarried and won't until I am out of college.</p>
<p>F, im broke as hell</p>
<p>but, i wont get in, so i dont care lol</p>
<p>I address the gap between the rich and poor in one of my post and said the same thing tivesrx said. so for coming at me in that way is stupid. my opinions are not coming out of some arrogrant disgust for poor people. i was just addressing the truth behind ur b.s. sob stories.bongoboy don't try to make me out as some arrogrant sob with a trust fund who never knew hard circumstances. b/c im far from that. In addition its not fair for a hardworking middle class family to be troubled with financial obligations to send 5 children to college with a span of 5 years and have to deal with all the expenses without any financial aid. it that what u want the middle class to get nothing because they were responsilbe went to college and supported thier family with a handout from the government</p>
<p>handouts from the government? So now all lower class people are on welfare? Someone lives in a red state. I didn't call you a tru****nd baby, but if you'd like to quote me out of thin air, feel free. You were wrong about the gaps between poor, middle class, and rich. That's why I singled you out. The poor aren't entering the middle class, they're getting poorer. No one handed out any sob stories. I keep telling you people, there's no such thing as fairness here. I find it sort of funny that you expect sympathy for the debt you'll incur, yet you have none for people with no money. You'll find no sympathy here. Enjoy those loans.</p>
<p>i just want to clear up that i was very happy with the way tun's situation is working out, i wasn't being sarcastic or anything. i believe students should have to shoulder the weight of college even if their parents cannot afford it. it makes sense, right?</p>
<p>i never indicated my family had debt, they don't they are responsible. i am right the gov't wants the poor to enter the middle class. i have debated this issue in competiton in know what im talking about. im really sick of your petty remarks, that u resort to because ur arguements are nothing but hot air.</p>