NBC Nightly News: For some students, college dreams within closer reach

In an NBC Nightly News segment, “For some students, college dreams within closer reach, ” NBC discusses the growing trend for “wealthy” and “elite” non-profit universities to use their large endowments to help off-set the expense of outrageously expensive tuition (as well as room & board) due to increased pressure by Congress. Some of these universities include Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Cornell, and Brown, giving discounted or free tuition (as well as room & board) if a students’ parents’ income is below a certain income, to help those families who have a lower-or-middle class income under $100k and/or $60k. NBC profiles Asian-American (with over a 4.0 GPA) National Merit Scholar Sammy Chow (and perhaps stereotypical overachieving “model minority”):

In the “good old days,” college used to be affordable and those who couldn’t afford college could work part-time to help pay for college. But these days, the best and brightest also have to worry about the being able to afford college, let alone get into the “best” one that they can. The median American family income (2006) was $48k, where tuition and room & board at these universities can exceed $45k a year.

When I graduated from an Ivy League university, I was saddled with over $17,000 in student loans – while trying to find a job during the Bush I recession (my brother, over $25k in student loans). I remember when I was a college summer intern, someone in the warehouse asked where I went to school, and after he told him, he said, “Wow, you must be *rich* AND smart.” Little did he know that my parents made just a middle class income at best.

I’m glad to hear that Asian-American students like Sammy Chow, as well as all American students, no matter how bright but not “rich” can go to the best universities in the U.S without worrying about the cost. I’ve always found it ironic that for most of the 1st world, the best universities have been public/government run institutions with relatively affordable tuitions while in the U.S., it is been the private universities. Higher education in the U.S. has increasingly become a class distinction and divide as the cost of a college education reaches beyond the reach of many, ironically so when education is the vital ingredient to attaining a higher standard of pay and living. I hope that both state governments as well with the federal government, can increase college aid so that college is affordable for all – not just with the “wealthy and elite.” But with the state and federal budget deficits due to Bush II economy, I don’t see that happening anytime soon unfortunately.