Rich kids tour Ivy League colleges on private jets while middle class kids drown in loans

[davidn3600]

Income inequality has become so prevalent in the U.S. that examples of its negative impact on the middle class are as common as Kanye West saying something cringeworthy in the media. The latest jarring example reveals that while most students are either drowning in student loan debt or reconsidering going to college all together due to high costs, wealthy kids are boarding jets just to tour the country’s top rated schools.

Newsweek detailed the extravagant travel arrangements rich would-be college students can take advantage of aboard Magellan jets:

“Magellan takes care of details such as setting efficient travel routes, arranging private campus tours and orchestrating ground transportation. Base price is jet-specific: 10 hours of air time on a light-size, seven-seater Hawker 400XP starts at $52,000, while the same package on the aforementioned super-midsize Gulfstream G200, which can seat up to 18, costs upward of $100,000.”

While one trip on a Magellan jet costs more than a full year of tuition at Ivy Leagues, middle and working class students are struggling with astronomical student loans, which perfectly highlights the severe income inequality many are coping with. None of this is shocking once you consider that the top one percent now own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent in the U.S.

There is currently more than $1.3 trillion in outstanding student loans, far surpassing the total amount of credit card debt at $712 billion. Keep in mind that student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy like other forms of debt. The average college graduate from a four year institution owes around $26,600, and a whopping 1.8 million Americans owe more than $100,000 in student loans.

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Colleges prefer to enroll wealthy students because they know it’s more likely that they’ll pay for full tuition without needing financial aid. They’re also more likely to have parents who will donate large sums of money to the school. When the privileged students graduate, they’re expected to join the alumni association and also donate cash.

Newsweek further explains:

Admissions departments favor wealthy students, even if their applications are weaker than those who are less privileged. Secondary education, after all, is a business. And no top-rated college got that way without donations for expensive libraries, prestige faculty hires and gaudy student centers.

Most college campuses include a student body where less than half of students are from poor backgrounds. When looking at prestigious schools like Colombia or Yale, only 15 percent of students come from a low socioeconomic status.

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/09/how-rich-students-tour-colleges-on-jets-while-middle-class-drowns-in-student-loans/

That's a pretty telling statistic right there. Only 15% of Ivy League students come from low socioeconomic status. How many rich kids do you think go to community college and vocational schools? How many rich kids went to Trump University or ITT Tech?

[LuvNewcastle]

1. Same as it ever was.

Rich kids were getting 5 deferments from Vietnam while they got their PhD.'s and poor kids were dying in rice paddies. This country is run by a nobility, with some struggle at the top to make it a monarchy. It's nothing new, either. America was like that when it was founded. People who think this country is a fucking melting pot with mostly equal opportunity don't know dick about our history.

[pnwmom]

2. The Ivy league makes admissions decisions separately from aid decisions,

so no bright but low income student should be deterred from applying out of fear that wealthy students are more likely to be accepted. All their aid is based on need and some students get full rides, with no loans.

[davidn3600]

4. How do you explain that only 15% of the stuent body are low income?

You can tell me that admissions decisions are made separately all you want... but take a look at who the students are! Only 15% are low-income. Are you going to try and tell me that only rich kids apply?

Compare that to other schools. I guarantee you the typical state public universities have nothing even close to that number of rich kids.

If the rich have advantages because they are going to private schools and have private tutors....that proves the point even more that the rich are privileged. There is very little chance for a poor student in a public school in middle-America to get accepted. It's like winning the lottery.

[pnwmom]

5. I don't know where you're getting your number or how they define low income.

But assuming you're right, there are many reasons. For one, children of low income families are less likely to have parents who attended college, and parents are often the drivers of these decisions.

They also often attend high schools without adequate counseling staff to help them navigate the system.

But, as I said, no low income student with excellent grades and SAT scores should be deterred from applying to the Ivies for fear they couldn't afford the schools, or that rich students will be given an edge in admission. That is true of many colleges, but not the Ivies. They admit students without regard to financial aid needs or parental income.

https://www.collegeraptor.com/blog/affordable-colleges/these-10-expensive-colleges-have-free-tuition-or-full-ride-scholarships-for-middle-class-families/

1. Princeton University

Tuition for 2015-16: $43,450

Financial aid policy: Full-ride (including tuition plus room & board) for families making $54,000 a year or less. Free tuition for families making less than $120,000 a year.

[jmowreader]

8. Well, let me see...

Poor kids don't believe Harvard would ever consider them, so they don't apply.

They don't know Harvard will find the money to get you in if you're accepted, so they don't apply.

And the schools in their neighborhoods are not equipped to prepare someone to compete for admission to that kind of college.

[roamer65]

6. Even at the more elite public universities...

they favor out-of-state kids from wealthier families. The university gets Mommy and Daddy's money right away on the out-of state ones, whereas they have to wait for state aid payments on the in-state ones. It was an admitted, off the record, fact at the public university I attended.

They made it hard as hell for the out-of-staters to get resident tuition, too.

[bluestateguy]

7. Rich kids are in high demand at colleges

They pay full tuition and are viewed as future donors.

And often these kids are quite mediocre in their academic talents and don't bring the highest work ethic with them when they arrive at college. And their sheltered upbringing shows.

[taught_me_patience]

9. Plus 200k checks stapled to the application.

[Initech]

10. The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer.

[Rex]

11. Plutocracies work that way.

SSDD.