The Ivy League Answer to Shrinking Federal Loans

Gaining admittance to an Ivy League university just became even more valuable than ever before. Many Ivy League schools are adding a little more incentive to work hard in high school - most poignantly for students whose parents are earning under $60,000 per year.

As the amount of endowments to these schools are rapidly increasing, the tuition costs are following suit. Yet in an answer to the tandem decline in loan institutions offering federal student loans, these Ivy League schools are replacing loans with tuition grants.

Tuition at major universities have been on a constant increase for some time now. Higher education has grown into a constant stressor for students and families. It is no longer the obvious step up for students that come from limited financial backgrounds.

This response from the universities is an effort to assist the financial aid needs of the students. The grants are given in return for the student’s employment in an on-campus position. That means that some Stanford smarties may end up slinging burgers in the cafeteria when they aren’t in class.

With the new approach to financial aid people have begun qestioning the merit of perpetuating the societal hierarchy that is in place in terms of familial income. The students that have parents paying their entire tuition and expenses are not required to spend any time working on campus. This implies that an individual’s ancestry will be what earns them their education rather than the student’s hard work and appreciation.

Lower income students will be even more limited in their later opportunities. The point to many Ivy League schools is to form connections within a social circle that will be beneficial to later success. The students that must carry out work duties on campus to earn their education will inevitably be separated in a subservient way to the people with well-to-do families. The possible networking that could be done between classes is not going to be so profitable if they are only socializing with other people in their economic standing.

Students from all walks of life can end up at an Ivy League school. Yet just as you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink, you can send a kid to college but you cannot force them to become a well-rounded individual.

While the Ivy League answer to the financial aid dilemma is a great step towards reducing the overall debt our consumers incur, it is also a giant step towards securing the caste system that is based on money, regardless of where it came from or who actually earned it.