Apparently to give to those who need it more. For example, because my parents had a median Silicon-valley income (which was above the national median), I did not get any financial aid, reasonable financing options, etc. My parents, limited by the mortgage payments to the house they bought in 2007 (bad timing, I know), had very little free cash (I had a little sister). As a result, I had to work for my money while there were supposedly poor classmates running around with Macbook Pros and brand new iPhones and iPads, paid for by their financial aid. (Or rather, they didn't have to pay for living and tuition, so every dollar they earned went into accessories).
You can tell I'm a bit bitter about this. I wonder what everyone else thinks. I understand that education should be equal opportunity, but this is not equal opportunity.
Would you consider a computer science student with a Macbook Pro wasteful/overprivileged?
I wouldn't expect film students to work with recycled 5-year-old Walmart cameraphones; I'm not offended by art students with DSLRs, nor people in English classes (who could technically handwrite drafts and go to a lab to type the final copy) with laptops.
If we expected everyone to work with the cheapest tools possible, I suspect the quality of the output would decline.
I was a computer science student (thankfully), so finding a job wasn't a terribly difficult task. However, I do think a CS student with a MBP is overprivileged. Throughout college I had a single laptop that cost $800 (which I paid for myself). I wrote and graded/proctored exams and problem sets, worked as a web developer for my school, organized presentations for a professor, in addition to doing internships over summers. After paying for rent, food and tuition (which unfortunately rose somewhere around 50% during my stay at Berkeley...), I feel that I deserve something better than a $800 machine, especially since I studied CS.
I can't possibly say the same about someone who did not work for everything else. If you got financial aid, that's for tuition, not for extra playthings. Use that money on tuition, books, and a basic machine, not a top-of-the-line MBP.
I apologize if I sound overly harsh of my peers who got off easy. I understand that some parents who are well-off enough to pay for their children's education should help out a bit, but I think it's unfair to punish a student because of his parents' circumstances.
I'm in the same exact boat as you. Between my three parents, Mom, Dad & Step-Dad. They make over 200K+ and I get crap for student loans from the government. My father helped me get my AAS but I am now working on a BS and I receive no help from my mom or step dad as they believe this is my complete sole responsibility... It's definitely tough out here.
I agree it's tough, but it's not that my parents refuse to pay... I just don't think they can afford to pay, given the amount of stress they have from paying their mortgage. There's such a crude measure of "ability to pay" that it doesn't take into account the different circumstances; that a family sitting on a load of debt (1+m), making 150k (together) in the Silicon Valley on an underwater property, is not more well off than a family with no debt, a paid-for property, making 70k a year (with only the dad working), living in Florida.
You can tell I'm a bit bitter about this. I wonder what everyone else thinks. I understand that education should be equal opportunity, but this is not equal opportunity.