Unemployment, and so on

[Jester]

Thanks. I know many of them have very large endowments, but I was unaware that Princeton was virtually free.

Harvard, your new example, totally subsidizes any student from a household earning under $60,000, and offers huge sliding scale subsidies for quite a few tiers above that.

At the very highest tier of schools, they have little to no need to charge high fees. The gains they make in reputation from selecting the best of the best, regardless of ability to pay, more than outweigh the lost tuition fees. They'll let the phenomenally rich pay their way, but for students attending on merit, it's almost always free, or at least very cheap.

-Jester