>Students who are financially disadvantaged get help, both from the universities and the government.

When "help" is defined as hundreds of thousands of dollars of loans that cannot be discharged, I laugh.

My family was in a below-average income bracket, and as the oldest son, my parents didn't have much money for us to go to school.

When I got into MIT and other elite schools, I was elated. Until I found out that "help" meant debt up to my ears. Eventually I realized it was unlikely to carry positive ROI over a full scholarship at any "lesser" university, which I was fortunate enough to earn.

But let's not act like the elite schools are handing out free money to go there. My test scores, GPA, athletic performance, and extracurriculars made me a very desirable choice for most elite schools. The only problem was that my family's unremarkable history and lack of funds wasn't a good match.