Not all $50,000 schools are equal. Schools with huge endowments can offer much more in financial aide grants leaving a graduate with little or no debt. In addition any top school, whether it is a major university or national liberal arts school, such as an Ivy or Little Ivy, and you have a strong alumni that hires from their schools.
Do not draw the conclusion that the schools in the US N&WR Top 40 (wherein many of the Ivies and "New Ivies" live) are itching to divest themselves of their endowment dollars in order to cover academic financial aid or grants. Also, your claim of graduating with little or no debt is inaccurate. Let's take you through the numbers.
Be aware that once you move down the ladder (below HYPS with their $20B endowments), many of the schools have endowments significantly less than $2B. An institution that can afford a 3% payout from the endowment (which is high) will be able to make at most $60M available for all four classes of undergraduates and all graduate students.
Using your $50,000 per year number, this would mean that only 1,200 students in total would be on a full grant and all others at the campus will be without funding.
That comes down to 300 students per undergraduate class assuming no graduate awards.
There is this uninformed view by too many parents that grants, academic awards, athletic awards, and financial aid is just dripping from the campus trees to cover your child's education bills. Be very aware what a $50,000 per year price tag really means for your family.
