@warblersrule: Thank you for an exceptionally helpful post, replete with great information and insight.
Don’t feel like going through this whole thread but Duke offers athletic scholarships while Penn and Princeton don’t, and instead many of their athletes get need based financial aid. I’d imagine that has something to do with those numbers.
Duke, like other elite U’s, has a bi-modal frequency distribution of payers which peaks with full pay and no pay students. In the economics of higher education at elite private U’s the middle class and upper middle end up with the short stick. They lack the disposable income and don’t receive enough aid to make it work and end up in the honors program of their state U.
I’m also amazed at how successful “need blind” universities are at filling half their spots with students from 1 percenter families. Again, this is true at most of the elite privates. It’s no coincidence the top privates all tend to have a similar payer mix. It’s also true the full pay students are needed to make the numbers work and pay the bills.
Having said that, 95% of students could care less what your family income is when comes to fitting in and being accepted by your peers.