Sigh, there is a lot of misinformation about this and higher education tuition.
* It’s not a new policy, when I went to school the same threshold was ~$150k
* It’s not a step function, it’s a sliding scale (with <0 tuition, i.e. cost-of-living assistance below that number, and some (but not full) tuition above $200k)
* It’s not just for athletes or minorities - I was neither (by Harvard standards, Indians were fairly common and not considered a minority in admissions processes). Lots of smart kids whose parents did not make a lot of money fell into this bucket.
* It’s not a small subset of the student body (as tzs said); despite what you might perceive, a large fraction of students came from modest backgrounds. It was balanced by a sizable fraction that came from incredibly well-off backgrounds. But the total number that had donated a building to get in were pretty small (there are only so many buildings).
Higher education has many, many flaws, but please examine the facts before you respond with knee-jerk cynicism.
Thank you for this. Unfortunately (IMO) many people seem to have a very short memory, or lack research skills, and I think this leads people to a cynical response.
* It’s not a new policy, when I went to school the same threshold was ~$150k
* It’s not a step function, it’s a sliding scale (with <0 tuition, i.e. cost-of-living assistance below that number, and some (but not full) tuition above $200k)
* It’s not just for athletes or minorities - I was neither (by Harvard standards, Indians were fairly common and not considered a minority in admissions processes). Lots of smart kids whose parents did not make a lot of money fell into this bucket.
* It’s not a small subset of the student body (as tzs said); despite what you might perceive, a large fraction of students came from modest backgrounds. It was balanced by a sizable fraction that came from incredibly well-off backgrounds. But the total number that had donated a building to get in were pretty small (there are only so many buildings).
Higher education has many, many flaws, but please examine the facts before you respond with knee-jerk cynicism.