Puck

Yes. In fact, Harvard's threshold is now so low that poor students get a free ride.

But it's a case of "big whoop-di-doo". Harvard's admission standards are still so strict that most poor students don't have a shot in heck of being admitted to Harvard. There's a strong tie between socio-economic status and school performance -- a poor student is a lot more likely to also be a poorly performing student, and thus will not be Harvard material.

A poor student is much more likely to struggle through high school and end up at a state school, usually a two-year college, and if they make it there, then on to another state university for their four year degree. Those are the schools that need the endowments, that provide the investment, that provide the ability to offer free scholarships to poor students.

I wonder what German and Austrian universities are not offering? College tuition rates in the USA aren't rising in a vacuum. They are rising because of "customer" (student and parent) demand. Our customers want new dorms with private baths (which means old dorms have to be torn down and replaced at tremendous costs), parking facilities, increased and saturated police patrols and campus security, computers, classroom technology, as well as fully stocked libraries (do you know how much it costs to receive even a single peer-reviewed journal?), etc. They also want greater aesthetics -- goodbye to cafeterias, and hello to enormous restaurant-style all-you-can-eat buffets of every food imaginable!; they also want broad parkways to walk down, beautiful grounds, handsome buildings, and comfortable desks in classrooms with new carpeting and fresh paint.

All these things cost money. So, to attract students, we spend that money, and we have that money to spend because we raise tuition and/or tack on student fees.

__________________
"Wealth is the slave of a wise man. The master of a fool." -- Seneca