<p>"OK, Mini, who ARE the beneficiaries of Princeton's policy of doing away with loans?"</p>
<p>According to Princeton's own data, the majority of the beneficiaries come from families with incomes between $100k-$160k. There is good reason for this - this is the group of potential customers they are most likely to lose to "merit aid" schools like Emory and Vanderbilt, etc. Now, for a measly $2k-$4k expense, mom can boast, "My kid is going to Princeton on a scholarship!" They make it back in tuition/room and board increases - 19.6% increase in room and board this year. </p>
<p>"They're under pressure to get more Pell grant students while maintaining enough full pay customers that the endowment can continue growing robustly. That the middle class gets squeezed out in that process comes as no surprise. Maybe I'm being overly cynical, but it's amazing how the percentage of students needing financial aid stays so steady each year at a given school."</p>
<p>It's amazing from our perspectives, but from the school's, hardly. These folks are professionals with decades of experience, and lots of training in "enrollment management" behind them. They know what they are doing, and nothing is left to chance. If you see more than half the student body coming from the top 3% of the population, and the median income of these is $250k+, it is because that is the way they like it. (Can't say I blame 'em.)</p>
<p>For the majority of these schools, there are fewer Pell Grant students than 15 years ago (or at least there were in 2004, the last year for which Mortenson has data.) </p>
<p>"If the schools aren't discriminating against low-income folks, why would they discriminate against the middle class?"</p>
<p>Answered in previous post. (#13) And it doesn't have to be discrimination only in the decisionmaking process itself. The best way to discriminate is in recruiting practices.</p>