Private colleges aren’t public. That’s what it comes down to. Sure, private colleges with huge endowments SHOULD offer financial aid because it’s in their best interest to have a diverse student body (and I mean actually diverse… like intelligent kids from very different backgrounds that have experiences that give them a wide range of perspectives, not kids with different pigments and surnames that all attended the same private high schools.) Colleges should do that because it fosters a more broadening learning environment. It opens up their talent pool and helps their public image as well. HOWEVER, they don’t have to. They are private schools and if they are happy with the dynamics of their student body… a student body that is willing to pay anything for the privilege of attending, that is their right. Heck, how many NYU sob stories have we seen on this page this season alone? Every one of those kids was looking at more than 25K in debt with parents maxing out their loans, kids maxing out direct loans, looking for private loans and each one had the “doesn’t matter what it costs, I’m doing this, mentality.”
Seems efforts should be to change our cultural attitudes about schools like NYU. Only then will they have any reason to make changes.