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Undergraduates with family income below $200k will be tuition-free at MIT

(news.mit.edu)
581 points gnabgib | 5 comments | 20 Nov 24 16:59 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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TheJoeMan ◴[20 Nov 24 19:26 UTC] No.42197249[source]▶
This is a great step in the right direction. I can't speak directly for MIT, but there are issues with how these programs don't apply to parents with small family businesses. My parents had a small business, with my father taking home a salary of $XX,XXX. Duke University used the business assets to determine the EFC (expected family contribution) of literally 90% of the salary. Essentially saying to sell off the family business for the college fund, which was a non-starter.

Small businesses are allegedly the backbone of America, and I feel these tuition support programs overlook this segment of the middle-class.

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nuancebydefault ◴[20 Nov 24 20:53 UTC] No.42198000[source]▶
Why are such things in the US so complicated? Where I live, studying is much much cheaper for most professions,for everyone!

That's the only fair way. Also, a set of well educated people pays itself back later in the form of mostly income and added value taxes, which provides money to keep studying for cheap for the next generation.

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1. sunshowers ◴[20 Nov 24 22:57 UTC] No.42199020[source]▶
Education in the US isn't cheap but those are elite colleges. The price tag is mostly for the networking.
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2. wholinator2 ◴[20 Nov 24 23:28 UTC] No.42199235[source]▶
I will say though, that pretending there isn't a difference in education is just untrue sadly. I've had to come to terms with this, going from a very small state college to a more prestigious private school for graduate studies. Nearly everyone around me is from a large, more expensive school, literally everyone else in my program is significantly better educated than me. Of course you can find good programs at small schools, they try very hard. But there's just a difference between a school that can afford to run classical mechanics 2 and one that cannot, a school that can afford to pick and choose a good professor for their classes and one that cannot. And that gap is vastly wider than i had imagined
3. corimaith ◴[21 Nov 24 02:55 UTC] No.42200641[source]▶
Funnily enough, if you think about for networking you'd much rather be surrounded by kids who can afford that 200k price tag upfront.
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4. thaumasiotes ◴[21 Nov 24 04:20 UTC] No.42201076[source]▶
That depends who you are. You want to be surrounded by kids who have assets you don't. If you're there on an academic scholarship, you want rich contacts. If you're there on family prestige, you want capable contacts.

If you're there on a need-based scholarship, you need both kinds, but neither of them need you.

5. baq ◴[21 Nov 24 06:38 UTC] No.42201734[source]▶
Networking is a way to maximize your optionality. If you limit your network you limit your potential options. Rich kids have more options and there’s absolutely zero downside to being exposed to some of them. (Don’t confuse with actually exercising them when they appear, I’m just talking about having them.)