I recognize that it all depends on which side of the fence you’re on.if you’re getting aid,great!
but if you’re paying full boat…seems like a scam.
if the AVERAGE net price at a school is 30k, why should I pay 60k? what other product do you buy
whose price is determined by your income/assets? if you’re buying a 200k condo, should you pay
400k because you have it? would you pay 40k for a 20k car because the dealer determined you can afford it?
Seems to me if I’m paying 60k and someone else is paying 30k, I’ve got a pretty good idea where they
came up with the extra $$ to subsidize that kid’s bill. you can fill out all the forms you want, and show
me exotic formulas, but at the end of the day, the $$ is coming from the people paying full boat.
my profile: middle class combined married income of 150k, small house in a good school district,
no latte’s or voss water, drive old cars and fix 'em when they break. saved up a good 500k non retirement
over our lifetime…I just want to pay the REAL price of an education.
the way this system is set up, we should have been blowing our cash and not working for years
prior to our kids hitting college…I cant imagine I’m alone in thinking like this
Yup! If you do not qualify for need based aid and your kid’s stats don’t get him any merit aid then you are subsidizing other students. You can always go to your state flagship.
@TomSrOfBoston I’m no expert on every school out ther, but it just has seemed to me that merit aid is usually available at lesser schools, but not at better ones, I’m sure there are exceptions
Services of state and federal government and public K-12 schools are generally priced by income / assets. Services of city and local government are generally priced by income / assets, but regressively. Groceries and housing are often priced by income, but if you’ve always been above the cliff, you may be oblivious to that.
If you don’t like what a school does with its money, send your kid somewhere else.
You are not subsidizing those who are paying less. You are not even paying the full cost of your own child’s education. The difference is covered by the school’s endowment.
@TomSrOfBoston I just don’t understand how/why people accept this kind of a marketplace when it is so out of whack with they way EVERY OTHER PRODUCT AND SERVICE is sold
Because many people are willing and able to pay for schools they value. Full stop. It’s really not in the control of the families, other than that they can vote with their feet and choose merit granting or public schools instead.
Sign your kid up for an online degree at U of Phoenix. Problem solved. Have your kid apply to West Point and then the rest of us can complain that our taxes are educating your kid. Lots of solutions.
As far as super elite colleges go, it’s a sellers market. So they do what they want and plenty of people address just glad to be able to attend. As you go down the prestige ladder, need based price differences lessen.
At many schools, and the vast majority if not all of the schools in the top tiers, the full list price of a college education is actually itself subsidized (by endowment funds, usually, but there can be other sources). If college pricing were actually fair, there wouldn’t be such an outright subsidy to full-pay folks, and full-pay families would actually pay this hidden subsidy that only the wealthy actually get to benefit from.