>>A number of the Ivies and their peers are now grants-only, so students graduate with no debt... indicates that Ivies have about 50% of students receiving need-based grants. They're showing average cost after aid closer to $20.
Also true for the East-Coast feeder schools for Ivy League: most attendees now get some sort of financial aid.
It's suggested that reliance on financial aid even by traditional upper-middle class families, confirms reducing financial power unless you're in or close to the 1%. Meanwhile it locks in Ivy advantage that you can graduate with little or no debt if you go to Harvard or Wharton, but will need to pay it off if you went to a Mid-West State school.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
