The problem with need-based aid is that the numbers they use don't make sense. When I went to college (not Harvard) the financial aid dept told my parents they

The problem with need-based aid is that the numbers they use don't make sense. When I went to college (not Harvard) the financial aid dept told my parents they made too much money to get assistance. My tuition was over 50% of their post tax income and I have a brother who was only 2 years behind me. How are you supposed to afford spending that much on a single child's schooling and still have enough to afford the rest of the family, retirement, insurance, mortgage payments, etc? Sure they could have planned better and saved for 20 years but the reality is that a very small percentage of people do that.