Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, gives an example using data from EPI’s family budget calculator. Gould notes that a family of four living in New Haven, Conn. – the city that’s home to Yale – needs an income of about $135,000 just to cover basic living expenses, such as housing, healthcare, child care, food and transportation.
“Those people aren’t saving for a rainy day, they aren’t taking any vacations. And they’re certainly not going to pay for college,” Gould said.
At least they’re not going to pay for a private, top-tier college without financial aid. The current cost to attend Yale, which is part of the academic world’s famed Ivy League, is above $90,000 per academic year, with tuition accounting for nearly $70,000 of that amount.