<p>I think Stanford does guarantee to meet full need to all US and perm residents, not internationals, and they do get a number of international students. Also that guarantee can have stipulations like meeting certain deadlines to be eligible for certain grants and money. At a number of full need guaranteed school, if you don’t meet the deadlines, you miss out. If you are eligible for certain state aid at some schools, and you missed the deadline or didn’t bother to apply and you would have gotten it if you had just done so, the school won’t make up that gap. My guess is that the discrepancies in the common data and Stanford’s guarantee (which they so state on their website) are due to those situations. </p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that there are lots of private schools, boarding schools out there for high school (and younger even) kids that are pricey too. You can look them up. I was paying college tuition prices for my kids to go to highly regarded, highly selective independent school. No one expects or gets money from the federal, state government for such things, and there are few scholarships and fin aid. All of a sudden, it 's college and instead of State U , or even less expensively at time, local State U, people feel that they are entitled to get subsidies from top private schools, and for their kids to be fed and to live there. What should people be expected to pay for private schools, for sending their kids off to school? I am every bit on board with state funding for those who live too far from any 4 year state school (or 2 year, for that matter, though I think the US has done well with having affordable community colleges within commutable range for most) that they HAVE to board in order to get that education/degree especially once they have reached junior status in college. But I am not interested in paying for sleep away experience for students or private school as a tax payer. </p>