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

(news.mit.edu)
737 points gnabgib | 3 comments | 20 Nov 24 16:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.767s | 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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dec0dedab0de ◴[20 Nov 24 22:53 UTC] No.42198990[source]▶
We have plenty of cheaper schools too, and they’re fine.

The expensive schools are for the richest people to say they went to school next to the best students who get in free.And for the best students to meet rich people.

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1. insane_dreamer ◴[21 Nov 24 05:08 UTC] No.42201323[source]▶
The cheapest you're going to get is $10K a year (and that's hard to find), and that's just tuition. If it's not near your parents' home then you're looking at $25K/year bare minimum (as in living off ramen packs and peanut butter). So that's $100K that your parents have to have saved up (per child) or which you have to take on as debt.

Just looked up our main state schools and cost of attendance is $31K - $35K for in-state residents. So that's $120K - $140K for 4 years (not counting increases). And these aren't top-100 schools either.

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2. freeopinion ◴[21 Nov 24 10:42 UTC] No.42202943[source]▶
It is possible to go to a top-100 school for under $5K/year tuition. Tens of thousands of people do it every year.
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3. insane_dreamer ◴[21 Nov 24 16:25 UTC] No.42205905[source]▶
sure; my daughter went to a top-30 school for $0 on a full-ride scholarship

What I was talking about what you expect to pay if 1) you don't have scholarships, and 2) you're not low income enough to qualify for a lot of financial aid (Pell Grant and matching grants from state schools)