Rich Colleges Receiving Richest Share of U.S. Aid

[Khephra]

If there is any grand, elegant logic behind the federal government's dispersal of more than a billion dollars in college aid, then Maria Hernandez is humble enough to confess that it has escaped her.

Consider her point. Poverty is hardly a rarity among the students of California State University at Fresno, where she is the director of financial aid. Many come from families working in the fields nearby, on farms where students spend their summer and winter vacations harvesting peaches and sugar beets to stay in school.

About three hours and a world away sits Stanford. Far fewer of its students are poor, yet the federal government gives it about 7 times as much money to help each one of them through college under one program, 28 times as much in another and almost 100 times as much in a third, government data show.

"Pretty sad," if you ask Ms. Hernandez.

more........

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/09/education/09AID.html

[rudeboy666]

1. sad indeed

....but the cutting edge of the Left springs from elite colleges.

Last time I checked, Left scholars like Richard Rorty were part of the elite faculty of $$$$ universities.

[EdGy]

2. Rorty is hardly left!!!

mainstream really, and his ideology in effect props up the current establishment!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. I have come to the opinion...

That TPTB no longer want economic opportunity in the US. One can only see the way they are gaming the educational system to see where they are going with all of this.

[Nikia]

4. I am a little confused about this

I thought that Pell grants were given out on the basis of students who apply. More expensive schools require more aid for more students. If the FAFSA formula says that a student's family can only pay $10,000 per year, that student will receive no aid at a $8,000/ year school, but $20,000 in aid at a $30,000 school. Students with higher incomes can get grants at the more expensive school but not a the less expensive schools. I thought that it was how it works.
If not, that article is saying that a poor student going to Harvard will have more of their college paid for than at a state college. For a good poor student, that is a good, rather than a bad thing. It would be bad for the average poor college students who would not be accepted to Harvard or other expensive schools.
Personally, for me, based on the aid package I received, it was cheaper for me to go to an expensive liberal arts college than a state college. It would be for other poor students who would go to my school as well. I don't see what is wrong with that as it is more important for poor students without connections to go to a college with a better reputation than rich students with connections that will guarentee them a good job upon graduation from any school.

[aeon flux]

5. I had my entire tuition and living expenses paid for

for 4 years at University of Pacific in CA.
60% of my aid package was in the form of grants, scholarships, 20% work-study and 20% loans. I come from a low-income family that couldn't afford to contribute anything to my education. I graduated in 2001.

I'm not sure how things are now, but I read that the UC and CSU ystem in CA just raised tuition 40% since January of this year due to the budget crisis. There is much less federal and state money in the system for educational grants and scholarships. The students in the lower economic rungs will hurt the most.

edit:typo

[aeon flux]

6. btw,

the annual tuition at U. of Pacific is $25k. It's a private schoole.

[fujiyama]

7. This might work for democrats

Most people do NOT attend Ivy League colleges, whether these colleges insure connections or not. Most attend nearby state univesities. That's why we have so many. They serve a purpose like public education. Same goes with lesser know private liberal arts college, which offer a great education.

I think Edwards would be able to frame this debate better than anyone though. He has the right populist tone. This really is about the government playing favors for their cronies, usually their alma maters.

I'm not going to argue that these elite institutions don't produce some of the top class scholars in the world, but I think these Ivy league type universities should start using more of their endowement for financial aid as well.

[American Renaissance]

8. I have seen it first hand,

I went to a small and this college got EVERYTHING it desired, the dorms were fucking condos, the classrooms looked like corporate boardrooms and all told to school had about 6000 students. The kids of millionares were getting all inclusive scholarships. There was money to burn and burn it did. When I was there tuition included health, dental, vision and sports medicine insurance.

At the same time the University with 20,000 students was and is literally falling apart. The dorms were hellholes that looked more like a POW camp and tuition was raised every year.

This was in Canada I might add, it's universal.

The parents who sent their kids to my college were in large numbers the type of people who had access to the halls of power. Many of the parents who send their kids to Stanford have the same access.

I can just picture a parent having dinner with some politician and mentioning that the college needs a new building, that sort of lobbying is unmatchable.