OT: Quinnipiac U. Campus

[kibblesnbits]

Wild rpi is more then mit.

Not really. MIT has a very large endowment and massive annual research grants to reduce the burden that must be carried by undergraduates. Not only are annual expenses less, but financial aid at wealthy private schools is significantly higher. Of all the schools my daughter considered, Yale was the least expensive outside of UConn (which after scholarships would have been an incredible bargain) because it has a great financial aid not just for the poor, but also the middle and even upper middle class. I make good money, but not $50K-$60K out of pocket money.

But those schools are the exception. The middle class and non-exclusive tier private schools (including excellent schools such as RPI - my alma mater, WPI, Wesleyan, Trinity, etc), which used to be a good match, are both being squeezed. Something is going to have to break in the next decade or so because the gap between affordability and income is spreading every year.

 

[cohenzone]

Not really. MIT has a very large endowment and massive annual research grants to reduce the burden that must be carried by undergraduates. Not only are annual expenses less, but financial aid at wealthy private schools is significantly higher. Of all the schools my daughter considered, Yale was the least expensive outside of UConn (which after scholarships would have been an incredible bargain) because it has a great financial aid not just for the poor, but also the middle and even upper middle class. I make good money, but not $50K-$60K out of pocket money.

But those schools are the exception. The middle class and non-exclusive tier private schools (including excellent schools such as RPI - my alma mater, WPI, Wesleyan, Trinity, etc), which used to be a good match, are both being squeezed. Something is going to have to break in the next decade or so because the gap between affordability and income is spreading every year.

As I said, big fat issue, and a political one at that because the economy depends on a well educated middle class. I'm really out of the college cost world myself, but if something doesn't change, my grandchildren will be faced with big problems. The closest one to college is still about 10 years away. Hopefully something changes for the good soon. It is the next big personal expense issue now that maybe the health care fight will be reduced to tuning the new product. Much more complicated as well. What I don't really understand is why the costs have pretty much universally gone up in lock step nationwide regardless of real differences in the situations at the schools (eg. major building programs vs. maybe none at all) and way above the inflation rate, in fact inflating when very little else is inflating.

 

[Adios]

Glad I was born when I was!