NEW YORK, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The burden of student debt and the difficulties gauging U.S. college costs have reached such a fever pitch that more schools are taking big steps to make college less expensive, reported The Washington Post on Wednesday.

"A desire at some schools to fulfill promises related to affordability and the dire need at other schools to offset declining enrollment has resulted in a boon for families earning upward of six figures: More schools are offering free tuition to middle-income families," it noted.

If a family earns less than 75,000 U.S. dollars, the Brandeis University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Richmond will cover a child's full cost of tuition starting fall 2025. The same will be true for students enrolled at the nine University of Texas campuses whose parents earn below 100,000 dollars.

Starting fall 2025 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Pennsylvania, students from families earning up to 200,000 dollars a year, a cutoff that includes the vast majority of American families, will pay no tuition.

At MIT, students are happy about the news of the aid, said Enoch Ellis, who is student body president. But he has also heard complaints that these schools are "middle-class killers": painful to students who are too poor to pay full tuition, but too wealthy to receive generous financial aid.

Schools are fundraising and using endowment funds to cover the increase in financial aid. University leaders say they are sending a clear message that their institutions are affordable for a large and important portion of the college-going public, according to the report. Enditem

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