<p>I’d like to address two of the many repeated claims here about financial aid. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>That it’s only the very poor or the very rich that can afford to go to expensive private colleges.</p></li>
<li><p>The full pays subsize the others.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>There are a very tiny handful of college in which financial aid for even those with incredibly modest incomes (under 60K) is extremely generous. These schools have admit rates that are below 9% and some of the largest endowments in the country–schools such as Harvard, Princeton and Stanford.</p>
<p>For most of the other schools, even very selective ones with high USNews rankings, financial aid, even for the families with very modest incomes, is not that great.</p>
<p>The IPEDS data for ‘net price’ (the price the family pays after federal, state, local or institutional aid, but not including loans, I think) for Northwestern is as follows: </p>
<p>Family Income Net Price
$0 $30,000 $12,783
$30,001 $48,000 $16,065
$48,001 $75,000 $21,062
$75,001 $110,000 $27,191
$110,001 and more $40,197 </p>
<p>So, if you are a family earning 30K or less, the net price for Northwestern is around 13K, around 45% of income. </p>
<p>Compare the data to Harvard:</p>
<p>Family Income Net Price
$0 $30,000 $2,170
$30,001 $48,000 $1,413
$48,001 $75,000 $4,570
$75,001 $110,000 $10,141
$110,001 and more $32,145 </p>
<p>Harvard is much more generous because of its endowment, not because it has more full pays to subsidize the aid.</p>
<p>There are more schools with net price data like NU than Harvard, and most schools are not even as generous as NU.</p>
<p>So private school tuition, even with aid, is hard for all families. There really isn’t some sort of advantage to being of modest means (and I can’t believe that people even think that it’s better to earn less than more in any situation). It’s one of those myths that keep getting circulated around.</p>