<p>@Teaspoons: If a person cannot afford a school, he should not be there, period. It is, by definition, not the school for him. Just like people should not be in homes they cannot afford. This is part of the problem with our society. Every student/parent should pay the same freight for the same education barring merit-based scholarships. Wealthy people already pay more taxes than others; they should not pay more for school. I have been poor, and I have been affluent. I resent paying more for my child’s education than somebody else who may not work as hard as I do, especially after putting myself through school years ago when college much more affordable and there wasn’t all this cost shifting. Nobody “deserves” anything but to be treated equally. College costs would be lower for EVERYONE if it was not for the defacto price discrimination that is making college unaffordable for those formerly known as the middle class.</p>
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<p>Harvard has no interest in being egalitarian. They’re interested in attracting students that have a good shot as being leaders in whatever fields they end up pursuing. </p>
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<p>I also have been poor and affluent. I worked just as hard when I was poor as I do now. Some people who are more affluent than me don’t work as hard, and some who are poorer work harder than I do now. I put myself through half of undergrad on my own dime, and I’m paying full price for my older kid. Perhaps I should resent myself. Or my parents. Or someone! :)</p>
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<p>This is really only true for full-pay families. If you’d be able to go to Harvard for free, that implies that your family income is no more than $60k a year. Harvard at half price would be around $25-30k a year, which would be substantially less affordable on an income of $60k. Yes, yes, Harvard could afford to pay for all its undergrads AND buy them ponies and ice cream, but other colleges in the same price range can’t afford to be as generous. Paying $25-30k a year would be a bargain for the full-pay families at Wesleyan and University of Chicago and Tufts and Columbia, but not for those in the $60k income range.</p>
<p>No, one should not be able to negotiate college tuition. What kind of entitlement BS is that? It is bad enough that too many high school students expect college as if it is a birthright. It is not. </p>
<p>Two things: one, your tuition pays for a lot of what the college/university offers. That is everything from upkeep to computers to dorms to the library to professor salaries and so on and so on. If the price was negotiated, the school would no doubt bring in less money. As a result, cut backs would need to be made. Would you really want to send your kid to a sub-par institution?</p>
<p>Two: if you need more money, you can always ask. I have known students who went to the financial aid office over and over again until they got what they wanted. Or if they didn’t, they went straight to the president of the university. This works better at private universities as it is well known that public universities tend to be more stingy with their money.</p>