[gavinray]

How many people do you think ARE financially able to go to MIT?

The tuition cost is $53,450, with housing costing $10,430 and to my understanding living there is required the first year.

Factor in books and food, and you're looking at $60,000-70,000/yr.

That's $240,000-280,000 for a four year degree.

I dropped out of highschool at 16, got my GED (thinking I'd be able to get a 2-year headstart on my degree without researching the cost of college), and enrolled in community college where it cost me $800 to take a single class.

Making $8/hr working in a lumber mill fulltime on top of trying to go to school, that just wasn't going to work out. After taxes my income was about $1,000/mo and I was living on my own and supporting myself, so all told I could manage to save about $200-300/mo.

It took me a third of a year to save up enough to pay for one community college class -- or I could go into crippling debt as someone who wasn't even legally an adult yet.

I eventually wound up quitting and giving up on the idea of ever obtaining a college education.

Real fantastic options, our education system and opportunity equality in the USA is just swell.

[jayparth]

I mean, if you get into MIT, you can definitely get student loans... lenders agree that your MIT degree is proof that you'll make significant income later in life and pay off that debt.

Your situation sucks. It's not really applicable for top schools though. With a combination of financial assistance and debt, it's possible for most people coming from bad financial situations.

[webkike]

Getting student loans is not a solution, it just pushes the problem later down the road and can often times ruin your life later.

[gavinray]

> It's possible for most people coming from bad financial situations.

I know this probably applies to almost nobody, but it's something I haven't seen discussed openly before:

If you're a completely average person in the US. Not a minority, coming from a middleclass family. But your family doesn't want to just hand you money -- you're kind of fucked.

There's something called "Expected Family Contribution". The country has decided that everyone's parents are just going to give away their money to their children.

> Eligibility for need-based financial aid is determined by a formula that subtracts the student’s expected family contribution (EFC) from a college’s total cost of attendance. This determines financial need. The equation looks like this: (cost of attendance – EFC = financial need).

So if your parents are say, by-your-bootstraps capitalists, and they go "Get a job bum, you want something, go work for it." then you're shit outta luck.

I applied for financial aid and I was denied.

"Your parents make too much money."

"Well, that's nice for them. I don't live with my parents and they have no interest in financially supporting me, so can't you calculate it from my $8/hr wage?"

"No, sorry. You can try waiting to go to college until you're no longer considered a dependent."

I'm not trying to make this out to be a sob story, but if you're a completely unremarkable individual without family contribution, your only way in is debt. And not even reasonable debt, that you could work a regular job and pay off in a few years, but obscene debt.

[manigandham]

This applies to a lot more people than you think, and regardless of whether they're a minority or not (whatever that even means anymore). Also even if your family does want to support you, the rates are far higher than what middle-class can realistically contribute. Ridiculous debt is the only option on the table for the majority of college students these days.