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>You have a giant pool of 17-18 year old kids with 0 assets and minimal skills. No you don't. People who get charged $50k for Stanford (and other top-ranked sc
by superuser2 11y ago
>You have a giant pool of 17-18 year old kids with 0 assets and minimal skills.
No you don't. People who get charged $50k for Stanford (and other top-ranked schools) have enormous family income/wealth, and for better or worse the social contract of our system is that parents contribute to their children's education commensurate to their ability to pay. The only people stuck borrowing the full amount are those whose parents could pay but refuse to.
You do get stuck borrowing that kind of money if you go to an expensive but not very good private school (how much help is available to middle-class kids scales with quality). A middle-class kid borrowing through a state flagship school (who generally gets no assistance) is more like $100k.
- Cyph0n 11y agoGreat, but how is that a positive? Stanford is a top level university, but it's simply out of reach for those who cannot afford it. University admissions should be purely merit based in my opinion.
- sethhochberg 11y agoMany elite schools practice need-blind admissions - Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. Financial standing has no merit on admissions, and if you can get in, you get to attend regardless of the financial support you require. Its a great system, but it unfortunately falls apart for the less-elite schools which don't have massive endowments to rely on.
- superuser2 11y agoUniversity admissions are need-blind when you're playing at this level, and qualified students from families who can't afford it are given aid packages that make it free or nearly free.
- polytap 11y agoCompared to many other institutions, Stanford does a good job of dealing with that issue. 85% of students receive some form of financial aid. There is no family financial burden for incomes $60k/year and lower.