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05/01/2005:

"At These Prices, the Poor Get Poorer, the Rich Get College"

For the college-bound, today is generally the last day to decide which college. No more second thoughts, no more waffling. It's time for a decision already!

Then reality hits. No longer do colleges pull out all the stops to woo accepted students - "Please, please, come here. We're the best school ever. We promise you ideal roommates, the ultimate fitness center, the career of your dreams!" Now the mailings from the chosen college carry more mundane messages, like, say, when exactly you should take every cent you have and mail it in.

Pondering those staggering costs, one can't help wondering who, exactly, can afford this most necessary of luxuries. The answer, increasingly, is the rich. Roughly half of American families make less than $50,000 a year, but according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, just 30 percent of current college freshmen come from that group.

A decade ago, just 14 percent of freshmen had parents who made more than $100,000; that has shot up to 32 percent. And only part of that can be attributed to inflation.
Full: nytimes.com