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

(news.mit.edu)
581 points gnabgib | 1 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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JumpCrisscross ◴[20 Nov 24 20:00 UTC] No.42197538[source]▶
It’s incredibly difficult to structure these rules in a way that doesn’t discriminate against small businesses while not opening a giant loophole for the rich.
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changoplatanero ◴[20 Nov 24 22:06 UTC] No.42198599[source]▶
Why is the price you have to pay for something dependent on how much money your parents make? Feels so unfair
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mh- ◴[20 Nov 24 22:15 UTC] No.42198688[source]▶
In my opinion, you're reasoning about it incorrectly.

What if I said: the price is the same for everyone, but people with less access to money get proportionally more assistance paying that price?

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changoplatanero ◴[20 Nov 24 22:28 UTC] No.42198781{3}[source]▶
still seems weird to me. is there any other product for 18-22 year olds where the price changes depending on their parents wealth?
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1. baq ◴[21 Nov 24 06:49 UTC] No.42201790{4}[source]▶
It isn’t a mcburger. It’s an investment with an excepted variable return realized over like 4-5 decades. There’s almost nothing else an 18-22 can do that has comparable odds of increasing value of oneself in dollar terms and in impossible-to-measure-society terms than getting accepted into a good school.

(E.g. you hear about college dropouts starting businesses all the time. You barely ever hear that about people who haven’t attended college at all.)