<p>@chesterton,</p>
<p>Before u continue on w your holier than thou comparison of your virtuous father vs spendthrift parents today, consider that the cost of private 4-yr college has increased 4x the cost of living since your dad was a student. Medical costs have only increased 2x the cost of living. Back then it was actually possible for a student to work and pay for college at the same time.</p>
<p>Also in your father’s day, schools did not apply a “high tuition/ high aid” model to deliberately raise the cost of tuition so full pay parents had to pay the cost of FA for another kid, in addition to paying their own kid’s tuition.</p>
<p>Also back then, working people actually had confidence that there would be a pension or Social Secuirty waiting for them after a lifetime of labor. Those promises are no longer there, unless you are a public employee.</p>
<p>Yes, I think the JHU family was terribly naive about costs and should have worked that part of the equation harder. JHU is one of those schools like Stanford, which offer merit aid to ~1% of students. If you are upper middle class, then not worth bothering with.</p>