The newest categories of students receiving preferential
admission at elite universities and colleges are First Generation (households
in which one or both parents did not attend college) and Low Income (households
that cannot afford the cost of tuition and fees). FG students make up as much as 20% of
admissions and LI up to 27%.
Elite schools can offer many slots to low-income households because
endowment income, annual gifts, and grants and scholarships from states and the
federal government offset much of the cost of attendance.
The U.S. Department of Education (IPEDS) collects data from
four-year colleges and universities and presents their full cost and after-aid
cost in a standard format.
Average cost before aid:
tuition, other costs (books and on-campus room and board)
Average cost after aid
Average cost after aid by Household Income:
Less Than
$30,000
$30,001 -
$48,000
$48,001 -
$75,000
$75,001-
$110,000
$110,001 or
above
The most exclusive schools with the largest endowments and
annual gifts are very generous, waving most or all expenses for families with
household income below $75,000 and waiving tuition for those with income up to $125,000.
The table that follows shows the average cost before aid and
the average after-aid cost for households with income below $30,000, between
$30,001-$48,000, and $48,001-$75,000,
Average Cost Before And After Aid For HouseholdsBelow $75,000 in Annual Income ($) | ||||
Average | Average Cost | Average Cost | ||
Cost for HI | HI 30,001- | HI 48,001- | ||
School | Full Cost | 30,000 | 48,000 | 75,000 |
Princeton | 61,860 | 1,348 | 1,771 | 6,224 |
Harvard | 64,400 | -230 | 632 | 3,392 |
MIT | 63,250 | 7,432 | 4,727 | 5,247 |
Columbia | 69,084 | 10,917 | 6,596 | 7,648 |
Chicago | 70,100 | 3,620 | 2,289 | 4,672 |
Yale | 66,445 | 4,978 | 4,392 | 6,896 |
Stanford | 64,477 | 2,548 | 3,047 | |
Duke | 67,005 | -1,070 | 827 | 7,805 |
Penn | 66,800 | 7,755 | 5,323 | 12,968 |
Northwestern | 68,060 | 6,416 | 9,054 | 11,480 |
JHU | 65,496 | 14,236 | 9,384 | 13,448 |
Caltech | 63,471 | 874 | 10,227 | 10,864 |
Dartmouth | 67,044 | 15,604 | 7,316 | 18,324 |
Brown | 65,380 | 5,335 | 5,459 | 12,181 |
Vanderbilt | 63,532 | 1,168 | 6,043 | 11,146 |
Cornell | 65,494 | 14,028 | 10,652 | 15,413 |
Rice | 58,253 | 7,206 | 6,988 | 9,595 |
Notre Dame | 64,665 | 8,838 | 13,451 | 13,979 |
UCLA | 33,391 | 8,233 | 9,559 | 12,593 |
Wash.U. | 67,751 | 5,716 | 6,580 | 9,528 |
Williams | 66,340 | 2,780 | 3,795 | 8,188 |
Amherst | 66,572 | 5,311 | 10,383 | 11,372 |
Swarthmore | 64,363 | 6,120 | 4,422 | 16,603 |
Wellesley | 63,390 | 8,204 | 9,948 | 12,150 |
Bowdoin | 63,440 | 5,866 | 9,246 | 15,195 |
Carleton | 64,420 | 16,366 | 11,408 | 15,350 |
Middlebury | 63,456 | 5,141 | 9,505 | 11,186 |
Pomona | 64,870 | 5,832 | 8,153 | 7,183 |
ClareMcKenna | 66,325 | 7,089 | 9,083 | 7,182 |
Davidson | 62,894 | 6,643 | 8,468 | 13,225 |
Students from families with income less than $30,000 can attend
Princeton for an annual cost of $1,348 and only $6,224 up to an income of
$75,000. (A minus number means that the school is paying a student to attend.) And so on in varying degrees for
the other 29 elite universities and colleges.
No household with annual income
below $75,000 pays over $16,000. The
cost of attending an elite school is lower than most state universities.
Why are students in elite schools attracted to socialism? Socialism is redistribution of income directed by a government. (Redistribution can be voluntary through
charity.) Many students attending elite
schools are beneficiaries of redistribution.
It’s reasonable for them to believe that if America is rich enough to
redistribute income to them to attend elite schools, it should be rich enough
to redistribute income to everyone to bring about an equitable distribution of
income for all.
In addition, almost every university has a Center for the Study
of Inequality. Faculty in these centers strive
to identify the degree of inequality that exists in the U.S. and recommend government policies to produce a more even
distribution of income.
The growth in endowment and investment income, gifts, and
federal and state aid that markedly reduces the cost of attending an elite
school provides support for redistribution.
No amount of socialist failures around the world will change students’
minds.
How many students understand that gifts for endowment, gifts
for annual expenditure, and government grants come from those who succeed in
business in a market economy. The top
10% of income earners pay 71% of federal income taxes and a comparably large
share of state income taxes, which finances government grants to students. Without the income and profits earned in
America’s market economy and the disproportionately high share of taxes they
pay, there would be much less money to redistribute.
Sadly, the well-to-do serving as university trustees are at
the forefront of supporting the programs of redistribution that make elite
education available to students from low-income households. In so doing, they reinforce student demands
for more redistribution (more socialism).
This situation will intensify in the coming years.