The new world: elite colleges and financial aid

Elite colleges like Harvard (pictured), Yale and Stanford have made big news in the past couple of years for their new policies of generous financial aid to the middle class -- with "middle class" defined as incomes below $180,000/year or even $200,000. An article in the 2009 Newsweek "How to Get Into College" guide explains:

Harvard "announced a range of new financial-aid policies aimed at easing the strain on middle- and upper-middle- income families. ...

"Within months, a score of other Ivies and well-endowed schools publicized their own aid overhauls aimed at the same target: middle- and upper-middle-income families overwhelmed by the spiraling cost of higher education."

Read the Newsweek article.