The upper class is the elite social class in the United States. Families from the upper class are classified by those who make over $100,000 a year, which leads them to be working the most elite jobs in the country. This creates a huge disparity among the other classes and the upper class because in the upper class, they make enough money to comfortably survive and do other things, such as save. This allows for students of these families to have money available to them when they are ready to attend college, but allows them to blindly attend whatever college they want without worrying about the price tag. These students have both private and public institutions available to them, most of them opting to go private because those are where the most elite schools lie in this country. Without the fear of not being able to pay tuition, these students are able to focus on school and their parents are able to continue to live the life they are used to, the tuition for school's not seriously affecting their daily lives because of their status in society. This freedom is something that middle class parents cannot have, because even though they tend to make significantly more than those in the working class, the sheer cost of any school, especially private schools, can easily be their entire income for the year. With receiving no or little aid, these families are not able to continue living the same, comfortable lifestyle they have become accustomed to if they want to be able to pay for their children's higher education.