If you can't get the grades, you don't have merit.
Debase the currency, surprised when it has less value? Lol.
Of course! So easy! What percentage of foreign students applying get aid or scholarships?
> Again, this is really the best of the best, those with the highest merit.
You're assuming that "the best of the best" are applying. This is not true. "The best of the best who are encouraged to apply and/or have the means", apply. This is not the same population.
> All they had to do was convince a bureaucrat their life was hard
I don't know who this "bureaucrat" is. When I interviewed at Cambridge I was seen by 3 fellows, all members of the relevant departments.
> If you can't get the grades, you don't have merit.
Nobody's this naive, surely?
Collage loans seem like a great solution when you’re entering a highly lucrative career, but that’s not true for every top student.
> Debase the currency, surprised when it has less value?
This bizarre comment is not related to the issue at all.
Higher education is a strange purchase that is engineered to extract the maximum amount of money (up to full-cost tuition, fees, etc.), based on financial records which you are forced to provide.
Any asset except for a residence is typically considered something that could be tendered to the university, and is accordingly deducted from financial need.
This means that external scholarships are limited as to how much they can reduce the expected parental or student contribution. Anything beyond this limit is deducted from need and pocketed by the university.