<p>From personal experience, with a daughter at Harvard and a son at another institution for which I was paying full freight, we got barely any financial aid from Harvard. Once the outside scholarship money rolled in, it became 0. I suspect that there are many students who aren't getting much financial aid because outside scholarship money reduces that aid. I would guess it is pretty rare that most Harvard students aren't receiving significant outside scholarship money.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, No offense intended (seriously), but how long ago were you at Harvard? ;)</p>
<p>Weenie,
I graduated in 1973, but there's every indication that the financial aid there is better now than when I went there in that students are carrying a lower proportion of loans as part of their aid.</p>
<p>Well, all I know is that my in-laws of VERY modest means managed to send all 4 of their kids to fancy schools (Brown, Columbia, Kenyon, and Duke) in the 70s and never needed a loan or aid. They just paid for it because it was cheap! Now here we are, much better off than they ever were, and we couldn't dream of sending one of our kids to those schools.</p>
<p>It's true that colleges have gone up in price -- far above the rise in costs due to inflation. However, that's true of all colleges, not just the ones that cost $40,000+ a year.</p>