It’s not real hard to check the school web site, which is what I did before I posted:
“Park enrolls students based on their talents and capabilities. Families who are unable to meet the full cost of tuition may apply for the Financial Assistance Program, which supplements tuition payments. Financial assistance does not need to be repaid.
In 2007, 18% of Park students in grades 1-12 received over $2 million in financial assistance that ranged from $1,000 per year to full tuition. Tuition remission for children of our faculty brings that total to 25% of the student body.”
You said:
“The fact is, financial aid officers at those schools will laugh in your face if you ask them about need-based scholarships for a non-URM (”underrepresented minority”) student. Non-URM parents are expected to take on a huge loan.”
Really? I wonder how it is then that a very white, very poor girl from the city where I live recently got a huge need-based scholarship from Harvard?
“...financial assistance that ranged from $1,000 per year to full tuition.”
If scholarships start at $1000, how do these kids get them for $500?
Prove it. Let's hear the specifics.
I doubt very much your "very white, very poor girl" got "a got a huge need-based scholarship from Harvard."
If she exists, then she's the token exception that proves the rule...that it's URMs who get the "need based" scholarships (i.e. grants) at Ivy League schools. Lower middle-class Asians and Caucasians need not apply.