Tuition Free Ivies

Because of recent pressure to shake free some of the money in their monumental endowment funds, certain Ivy League schools are offering incredible tuition breaks to families of the middle class.  Harvard and Yale are two, and the West Coast "Ivy" Stanford announced a similar policy this week.  Many other private schools are suddenly becoming a cheaper option than public universities for middle class and poorer families.

Under certain threshholds and at certain schools the school picks up everything: tuition and room and board, but students will be expected to work during breaks and over the summer.  Other schools offer free tuition and families must come up with room and board, which is still easily $15,000 a year.  Other schools offer loan forgiveness programs where whatever amount the student would be responsible for would be forgiven, meaning that a student will not leave college with tens of thousands of dollars in loans before they land their first full-time position.

These schools may not even be of interest to every family, and the new programs will definitely increase the application pool, but for some middle-class families, tuition may no longer be out of reach.  Before you assume all your family can afford is a two-year community college and then transfer to a public university, look at the options of private education.