JBHE: Latest News for 3/20/08

Several High-Ranking Educational Institutions Boost Financial Aid for Low-Income Students

Joining many other high-ranking colleges and universities, Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, Columbia University in New York City, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, have made tuition more affordable for students from low-income families.

Carleton College, where blacks make up about 6 percent of the 2,000 students, has established its Access Scholarship Program, which gives scholarship grants to students from families with incomes below $75,000. The program is expected to reduce the loan debt of Carleton’s neediest students by 70 percent. The new scholarship grants are expected to add $1 million to the college’s annual financial aid budget.

Columbia University announced that students from families with incomes below $60,000 would no longer be required to make a financial contribution toward tuition or room and board expenses. In addition, Columbia is eliminating loans for all students on financial aid and replacing loans with scholarship grants.

At MIT, the new financial aid package waives tuition charges for students from families with incomes below $75,000. For these students, scholarship grants will replace loans for costs other than tuition. These students will also see a reduction in the number of hours they have to work under the university’s work/study program. About 30 percent of all MIT undergraduates will qualify for the free tuition plan.

MIT estimates that the new program will add $7 million to its $67 million financial aid budget.

Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, has eliminated loans from financial aid packages for students from families with incomes below $60,000. These students will have their loans replaced with scholarship grants.

Currently the average loan component of financial aid packages for students from families with incomes under $60,000 at Vassar is nearly $3,000. Vassar estimates that its new plan will add $1 million to its financial aid expenditures.