@bclintonk, the problem with that logic is that any single applicant is unlikely to be the median/average student in that tax bracket at all schools. Sure, a poor kid may have to pay more at a selective school like Northwestern than at an in-instate option (though it may still be an affordable option depending on your appetite for debt and work), but the opposite isn’t true. As in the example I gave, even though the average poor kid at WashU pays less than the average poor kid at UNL, someone who can get in to WashU is likely to get so much merit money from UNL that Nebraska is as cheap or cheaper for him/her than WashU (and those who can’t get in to WashU don’t have that option anyway).