> Compare your struggle as a well off person attending an elite university to what your poor counterparts were doing at the same time. They were cleaning bathro

> Compare your struggle as a well off person attending an elite university to what your poor counterparts were doing at the same time. They were cleaning bathrooms, waiting for buses in the cold, dealing with criminals in bad neighborhoods, and living in apartments with cockroaches. No, nobody at my school was doing this[1]. Top-tier schools leverage their massive endowments to provide substantial need-based financial aid. Basically their mission is to ensure, if you get in, that there is absolutely no financial friction to attend. In one high-profile instance Princeton University provided a full scholarship entirely from its own endowment to a formerly homeless undocumented immigrant who went on to become his class's salutatorian[2]. [1] except the cockroaches but that applied to everyone as many of the dorms were quite old. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan-el_Padilla_Peralta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan-el_Padilla_Peralta