So if your in a household with two high income parents, someone needs to quit to get under the cap.
Hypothetically a family of 4 in NYC making 300k only keeps around 180 to 200k after taxes and deductions. If you have a kid attending that's 65k just for tuition. I can't imagine putting a 3rd of a family's income into a student's education.
Lots of highly ranked schools and Ivy's have similar policies. It's often cheaper for a middle class family to have their kid go to an Ivy for essentially free than it is to deal with tuition for a state school, even with grants and scholarships and such.
I'd have to look at their financial aid calculator, but I suspect a high income earning family could just reduce their income a bit and qualify for vastly more aid.
This is already a thing that happens. You also see plenty of highly-educated parents working fairly menial jobs at highly-ranked universities - so their kids get free/half-price tuition.
Expecting the parents to pay for their children also comes with issues, but in general successful parents do want to have successful children.
The FAFSA for example only looks at the parent you're living with, but I believe Harvard's financial aid will want income information from both parents.
I can't imagine most grad students already having an income of $300,000 per year. In that case why go to med school?
So, it’s not like 1/4 of your income just disappears the day they enroll.
If they quit after 2 years or can't get though residency you just wasted a ton of money.
Let's say Billy and Bob have an adopted son named Dave. Billy and Bob both make around 160k. Arguably Bob should just quit the year before Dave starts attending, the family would probably break even.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/som/offices/finaid/cost#meds...
At the end, degree programs were recommend to me. Courses, books and some associated living expenses (childcare) were paid for. I had regular interviews all through college to measure my progress - and help at the ready when struggled.
All this to say, knowledgeable, genuinely helpful and immersive engagement with the recipients of aid - this goes a long way to safeguarding funds + intentions + outcomes.
