Just saw this, and wanted to reply for clarity :P I agree with what you're saying - it's not necessarily student loan debt, I misstyped. But the average Yale s

Just saw this, and wanted to reply for clarity :P I agree with what you're saying - it's not necessarily student loan debt, I misstyped. But the average Yale scholarship package (no loans) is 30k-ish, so the average family pays about 20k a year. I got in to Caltech EA, and it's pretty much the same for me. But basically what I meant is that students from middle-upper middle class (majority of applicants) have families who spent a good amount going to an Ivy/equivalent, so they're even more encouraged and pushed towards a high-paying field. You should see the looks on some of my friends' parents faces when, after 4 years at Yale, their kid wants to become a freelance artist instead of a doctor :P But I do agree, private colleges are almost never "sticker price", and are well worth the money IMO.