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PrincetonUniversity Communications Office, Stanhope Hall,
Princeton, NJ 08544 USA Princeton in the NewsTime, April 16, 2001 How Much Do I Hear For This Student? As colleges up their bids for the highest scorers, more scholarships go to kids who don't need them The weapons in this war are called "merit-based aid" and "preferential packages." The latest skirmish began in February, when Princeton University, whose $ 8.4 billion endowment is the largest per student of any U.S. college, announced that it would no longer require its scholarship recipients to take out loans as part of aid packages, replacing them with outright grants. This change will save individual students tens of thousands of dollars and make Princeton more attractive than some equally prestigious campuses--unless they match the offer. Some are doing just that. According to Ron Ehrenberg, director of Cornell's Higher Education Research Institute and author of Tuition Rising: Why College Costs So Much, Princeton's move (a shift of $ 16 million a year in resources) is triggering similar deals at Harvard, Yale and M.I.T. Last week Dartmouth announced that grants for next year's freshmen will increase an average of $ 1,750 per student. Jim Bock, acting admissions dean at Swarthmore, says Princeton's move "raises the bar," adding, "We're always refining our policies." However, ripples are also being felt at institutions that, while selective, can ill afford to bid more for top students. Pennsylvania's Dickinson College has an endowment less than one-fiftieth the size of Princeton's and must carefully husband aid. "Princeton," says Dickinson vice president for enrollment and student life Robert Massa, "has reduced the maneuverability of making a financial-aid package competitive." This is the second time in three years Princeton has stolen a march in the tuition wars. In 1998 the university announced it would no longer count the value of an applicant family's home as part of the formula it uses to determine financial need. That change allowed many applicants to qualify for a few thousand dollars more in aid. |
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