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According to [1] tuition was $150 in 1900. According to [2] average annual wage was $450. Assuming women in the work place was a lot less common I will bump it

by Dn_Ab 16y ago

According to [1] tuition was $150 in 1900. According to [2] average annual wage was $450. Assuming women in the work place was a lot less common I will bump it to $500. So about 30% of household income? Harvard costs $34,976 in 2010. According to [3] median household income in 2009? is $49,777. So 70% of median income. Prices as a percentage of average income has certainly gotten steeper but you cannot argue that things now are less open than they used to be. There are more women and minorities and scholarship opportunities for different groups. Certainly things could be a lot better but progress has surely been made. You can't throw a number like $100 without context. [1] http://kwharbaugh.blogspot.com/2005/02/educational-costs.html#harvard-tuition-history http://kwharbaugh.blogspot.com/2005/02/educational-costs.htm... [2] http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/his/e_prices1.htm http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/his/e_prices1.htm [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_household_income http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_household_income

rayiner 16y ago
It is under-appreciated how open Harvard, Yale, etc, have gotten in modern times. While tuition at Harvard might be 70% of the median annual income today, someone whose family makes $50k/year pays nothing in tuition. At Yale between $60k-$120k, tuition is held at about 10% of family income. Full tuition doesn't phase in until well over $200k. My brother is at Yale, and his classmates are by and large the children of upper middle class professionals. Certainly kids who've gotten a good shake in life, but mostly people who got in because of good SAT scores and extracurriculars, not donations or political connections.