It's a good move but blanket 200k may mean that a kid from a well-off family in Iowa with a 150k income is able to get free tution while a kid with not so well off family in California with a 210k income is unable to get free tution.
Income as a number doesn't have much meaning until Cost of living is taken into account.
But I’ve also never met or heard of a $200k household that I wouldn’t consider “well off”. Typically, stories about these “not well off” yet “over double the median income” households are budgeting issues.
People don’t like to admit that because most people blame external forces instead of evaluating their own choices.
Multiple kids + unexpected chronic health issues can quickly change this equation. And before you go judging someone for having multiple kids, consider that a) demographic collapse is probably very bad and we don't want our society to make having kids exceptionally hard, rather than the default norm and b) people may decide to have kids without expecting significant and rapid changes to inflation and cost of living.
You would need to set aside $10-15k a year for 18 years, depending on the interest rate, to accumulate $320,000 in cash for 4 years at an $80k school at full freight.
A family making $200k in California takes home about $130k, so call it about 10% of their net income over the child's lifetime. That's some pretty significant budgeting!
It depends on location. In San Francisco a mortgage on a median house might be over $80k/year and child care for a young kid $20k-$30k/year. Then $50k in taxes, assume two kids, that's maybe $180k and we haven't even bought groceries yet. Or healthcare.
Besides the obvious that there needs to be some sort of cutoff, it's more of a socioeconomic angle, not economic. By doing it this way it also encourages a larger geographic distribution and thus a wider range of background demographics.
To make matters worse, a kid from a well off family in Iowa is way likelier to stand out and get admission to such colleges than a kid from California, especially the bay area, where smart kids from well off families are common and standing out is hard.
Aurornis|11 months ago
Every university like this uses a sliding scale.
In this case, their scale slides to the point that under $200K family income you pay nothing for tuition.
Under $100K they'll even cover food and housing.
elicksaur|11 months ago
But I’ve also never met or heard of a $200k household that I wouldn’t consider “well off”. Typically, stories about these “not well off” yet “over double the median income” households are budgeting issues.
People don’t like to admit that because most people blame external forces instead of evaluating their own choices.
FloorEgg|11 months ago
closeparen|11 months ago
A family making $200k in California takes home about $130k, so call it about 10% of their net income over the child's lifetime. That's some pretty significant budgeting!
hedgehog|11 months ago
jghn|11 months ago
aprilthird2021|11 months ago
WeylandYutani|11 months ago