Amherst College Eliminates All Student Loans

Amherst College, the highly selective liberal arts college in western Massachusetts, has announced that it is eliminating all loans from its financial aid packages and replacing them with scholarship grants. The program, which will go into effect in the fall of 2008, will include all incoming and current students.  

Tom Parker, dean of admission and financial aid, noted, “Students who graduate from college with debt feel compelled to make career choices based in part on their need to pay off student loans. Now graduates from low- and middle-income families will be able to make career and life choices free of the specter of debt.”

Blacks make up 9 percent of the student body at Amherst College.

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