Robbing Peter to help Paul?
Harvard University is planning to significantly expand financial aid to students from families earning as much as $180,000 a year, The New York Times says. But officials at some higher-education institutions–under pressure to follow Harvard’s lead–contend that targeting middle and upper middle class students for tuition discounts could end up shifting financial aid from low-income students to wealthier and create pressure to raise full tuition to pay for all the assistance.
What do you think? Will Harvard’s increased aid for middle class and upper middle class students result in less help for lower-income students?
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January 2nd, 2008 @ 9:53 am
Yes, it’s a good thing. When a large private school may charge the cost of a house to go for four years, it is a very large cost for almost all families.
The big schools compete for students, and if they can do so by helping the families, I say more power to them.
It seems to me the most common objection might be to ask, “How dare the very comfortable family stay comfortable?” And one possible answer is that we live in a country that allows for economic differences, and yes, that causes tension. But the thousand or so families each year that benefit from this need not be seen as enemies.
This is not a big deal, folks.
For the record, I am not in any way, past or present, part of Harvard.