[nostrademons]

"If you don't have rich parents you have to go into debt to attend private school."

That's not really true. Most top private school have really, really generous financial aid programs. And they give the money in outright grants instead of loans.

I come from a very middle-class family - father is a househusband, mother is a teacher. I went to Amherst College, which has a $40K/year sticker price. Amherst picked up more than 2/3 of my tuition in outright grants. It didn't cost me much more to attend than it would've at UMass (well, not quite true, I would've gotten a full ride at UMass, but it wasn't much more than the UMass sticker price). I ended up graduating with $4000 in loans, which I could pay back with internship earnings.