I'm guessing you haven't done the financial aid process on a while. http://npc.fas.harvard.edu/ http://npc.fas.harvard.edu/ Even for a family making $100,000/

I'm guessing you haven't done the financial aid process on a while. http://npc.fas.harvard.edu/ http://npc.fas.harvard.edu/ Even for a family making $100,000/year, Harvard's net price is roughly half that of public school ($12,600 compared to $25,000). At US median wage ($50,000) Harvard is free to parents and $4,600/year to students, which is a reasonable expectation for summer and term-time work. No one (in the US) pays full price at a high-end Ivy unless their parents can afford it. You can only rack up huge amounts of debt at state schools and less prestigious (and therefore poorly endowed) private schools.