system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do rich people donate to a certain college instead of providing free scholarships so students don't have as much debt?
gpt
It's a lot of work to set up a scholarship fund, and it's expensive if you want to get a tax deduction. You need lawyers, etc. Schools generally want to give out more financial aid. It allows them to accept better students. Harvard, for example, eliminated tuition for all students with family income less than $100k recently. When they donate to the school, the school uses that money for the benefit of the students. 

Some math to consider: If you give $100k to a school and you're in the top income tax bracket, it's equally as expensive to give out $60k to random students (because you miss the tax deduction). You can donate the money to a school, they can use $40k to remodel a lobby or hand out free condoms or whatever else they want to do and *still* give out the same amount of scholarships as you would have if you went off on your own.