100x this. I went to a high school in a suburb of Chicago that essentially was a feeder school into local/state colleges. The idea of leaving the state or even

100x this. I went to a high school in a suburb of Chicago that essentially was a feeder school into local/state colleges. The idea of leaving the state or even the surrounding area did not even cross the mind of most people in my class. I ended up applying to most of the same "safe"/surrounding schools that my friends did, but also reached and sent applications to a few very selective schools. When I got accepted into Harvard I thought, great, how is my family going to pay for this? We submitted our financial aid paperwork, and it ended up being cheaper for me to go Harvard than any of the state schools in Illinois. It seems generally true that as the quality of the university increases, the financial resources it has at its disposal also increase. Many schools seem to be investing this into financial aid, but I wonder if that's generally true across the board. Also, I think no matter what it will take time to shed the stereotype that elite schools are for the economically elite. This is a major reason I think there isn't as much awareness about the vast amounts of aid that these schools give to students.