Yale Sees Larry, and Raises Him
Perhaps the most successful move Larry Summers has made at Harvard was to eliminate tuition for students from families with incomes of under $40,000. Such students had previously been expected to make a $1,000 contribution to their tuition, but when you're only making 40k, a thousand dollars is still a lot of money. The move's effect was both practical and symbolic. I knew it was a huge success for Summers and Harvard when someone forward me a mass e-mail headlined, "HARVARD FOR FREE!" You know you've gone mainstream when your financial aid initiative gets turned into spam.
Now Yale is following Harvard's lead,
eliminating tuition for families with incomes of less than $45,000.
This is all great news. But isn't it also worth having a discussion about why it costs $40,000 a year to go to college?
