The price portion of this hits hard. My oldest starts college in 2 year and then his younger brother follows 2 years later. We make enough to not qualify for need based aid but not enough to just write a check, merit based aid + a meager 529 and our savings is their only hope besides debt.

Further, both are male, hetero, only 1/4 hispanic, and my wife and I are not drug addicts or alcoholics so they'll get nothing from the "whole student" review. There's a huge swath of the population in this boat. The middle/upper-middle class pays for everyone else as always.

> my wife and I are not drug addicts or alcoholics

Yet, you still have two years.

> We make enough to not qualify for need based aid

Are you sure? If you're household income is <$340k (depending on details) you'll still get some scholarship, and as long as your household income <$200,000 tuition is free.

[1]: https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/net-price-calculat...

Thats why its called price discrimination: you are trying to get as much money as possible from each buyer without regard to fairness. Heroin dealers at least set a fixed $/oz because they know that word getting around that someone gets it cheaper would get them shot.

> only 1/4 hispanic

If you mean only one grandparent is born in a Latin American country, then according to the U.S. Census Bureau, you are Hispanic.