At a time when colleges and universities across the country are scaling back or eliminating their need-blind admissions policies, administrators say the College can maintain its policy in the near future despite the increasing burden it places on the College's budget.
During the last fiscal year, the College spent about $27 million on financial aid, representing 17.4 percent of its total budget, according to statistics from the Vice President and Treasurer's Office.
In 1990, the College spent 14.9 percent of its budget on financial aid and the percentage has increased steadily since then as more students have required more aid.
The College is projecting that financial aid will cost $40 million by the year 2000, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg said.
"Financial aid is the fastest growing category in the budget," College Trustee Dick Page said in an interview earlier this month.
But the extra burden of financial aid is not unique to Dartmouth and other schools have been forced to modify their policies.
Furstenberg said the College is one of about only 12 that maintain a true need-blind policy, in which the Admissions Office evaluates candidates without looking at their financial aid information and guarantees to meet all of an accepted student's demonstrated need.
A high priority
Maintaining need-blind admissions has been the College's top budgetary priority, Vice President and Treasurer Lyn Hutton said, leaving the College committed to the policy despite the increased burden. She added that facilities maintenance and compensation are the second and third priorities.
Both the College Budget Committee and the Trustees say Dartmouth still possesses the financial resources to maintain its need-blind policy in the short term.
"We can keep it up as long as we can afford it," Trustee Richard Page said. "I can see no reason at the current time why we cannot afford it."
College Provost Lee Bollinger, who chairs the Budget Committee said, "There is an ethos within the institution that need-blind admissions is one of the top priorities to maintain."
But he said the College does not have a legal obligation to keep the policy forever and that the College has considered changing its policy before.
"Need-blind admissions is a high priority, but it is not the only one," Bollinger said.
The policy "is something we value enormously and therefore we give up other things for it," Bollinger said. "At some point, you have to live within your means. For example, if we had to give up faculty for need-blind admissions, it wouldn't make much sense to have students come to a school without faculty."
Paying for aid
Both Furstenberg and Financial Aid Director Virginia Hazen said the success of the College's fund-raising efforts leaves them confident the College can and will maintain its need-blind policy.
"I think because of the commitment the Trustees have made to need-blind admissions, it is in no danger in the foreseeable future," Hazen said.
Furstenberg cited the success of the $500 million Will to Excel capital campaign in its financial aid component as the reason for his optimism. So far, he said the campaign has raised $29 million of its $40 million financial aid goal.
"The capital campaign reaffirms the College's commitment to need-blind admissions for the next four to five years," he said.
He said the College has received money from outside sources at the same rate -- about 10 percent -- at which the need for financial aid has increased, leaving Dartmouth in a better position than other schools to maintain its policy.
Increased demand for aid
College officials attribute the growth in demand for financial aid to a variety of factors including lower family incomes and the College's commitment to increasing diversity.
"The income of the American family has not kept up with tuition and the Federal government has not compensated for it," Furstenberg said.
Furstenberg also said the student body's financial aid need has grown over the past five years because the College has become increasingly diverse, specifically socioeconomically.
He said 34 percent of students received financial aid in 1990 while 40 percent received it in 1994. But he said he said he foresees an end to the increase, when the College reaches its diversity goals.
Hutton said, "If students contribute as much to the Dartmouth experience, then you can't admit them based strictly on economic criterion ... You don't want to lose what they might have offered just because they come from a family of modest means."
Other schools
But not all schools across the nation enjoy the option of admitting students without considering potential financial burdens.
Furstenberg said he sees a national trend toward eliminating the need-blind system -- which only about 12 colleges and universities nationwide still employ.
The "most selective and best endowed schools" such as Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale Universities and Amherst and Wellesley Colleges have been able to continue true need-blind admissions.
But Furstenberg said he was reluctant to characterize the policies at other schools because "some schools that say they're need-blind that I wouldn't say are need-blind."
He said some schools who claim they are need-blind make admissions decisions without looking at a student's financial status but then do not meet that student's full demonstrated need.
Other schools have modified their policies so they accept a certain number of students who are able to pay the full tuition.
"The need-blind system at Dartmouth is the purest form of need-blind admissions," he said.
Furstenberg said he thinks the need-blind policy is important for Dartmouth to remain competitive with other elite schools.
"I think need-blind admissions is necessary to be a world class university that accepts the very best students," he said. "To give up need-blind admissions would hurt us. I think it's fundamental to what we do here."
