Dartmouth's need-blind admissions policy, one of the College's "jewels," is causing an increased strain on the College's financial resources, jeopardizing the future of the policy.
The policy is becoming more and more expensive to maintain because the cost of financial aid is rising faster than the College's revenue.
"There is no question that there are a series of factors converging that make [the future of the policy] a cause for concern," Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg said.
According to Furstenberg, the cost of financial aid is growing at about 9 percent a year, while College revenue only increases by about 6 percent.
Currently, Furstenberg said 15 percent of the undergraduate College budget is allocated to financial aid, a total of about $23.5 million.Furstenberg said 27 percent of financial aid awards are paid for by the College's financial aid endowment.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees John Rosenwald said including the graduate schools, Dartmouth spent $29 million on financial aid last year. Rosenwald, who refused to say there are no plans to modify the policy, said "like all jewels, it is an expensive one."
Efforts such as the Will to Excel Capital Campaign, which has added $40 million to the financial aid endowment, only enable the College to keep up with the 9 percent growth rate, he said.
This, combined with federal funding levels that are expected to decrease sharply in the coming years, have placed an increasing strain on the College's budget, Furstenberg said.
Furstenberg said only about eight to 10 colleges and universities have need-blind admissions policies, which guarantee to accept students regardless of how much financial aid they need. Several administrators said the College's need-blind admissions policy is very important, because it helps assure a diverse student population.
College Provost Lee Bollinger mentioned Brown University as an example of a prominent institution that does not follow a need-blind admissions policy.
Brown Director of Financial Aid Tony Canchola-Flores said Brown's lack of a need-blind admissions policy does not have a large impact on its admissions numbers.
Canchola-Flores said Brown accepts students on a need-blind basis until the admissions office runs out of financial resources. He estimated this only affects the last 20 to 100 students admitted into the freshman class.
Because of the small size of Brown's endowment when compared to the rest of the Ivy League, weighing financial need "is how we support financial aid" Canchola-Flores said.
Canchola-Flores said Brown's annual budget for undergraduate financial aid is $24 million, and said it has not increased since he started working there in 1989.
Tracie Sweeney of the Brown News Service said the university "has never had a purely need-blind admissions policy."
Although Bollinger said Dartmouth's budget projections over the next few years currently showing a deficit, he said need-blind admissions form only one piece of the College's general financial problems.
"The costs of meeting the principle of need-blind admissions is increasing ... [but it] is one category among hundreds," Bollinger said. "It is not clear that need-blind admissions must be modified or eliminated in the future."
Bollinger stressed the administration is investigating ways to control costs while still maintaining the policy. For example, Bollinger said College officials are currently discussing whether Dartmouth has been too generous in its financial need assessments.
He also said some officials have suggested shifting financial aid awards away from grants and more towards work-study programs.
Despite the discussed changes, Bollinger said he thinks it is important to consider what kind of student body Dartmouth would have without the need-blind admissions policy.
Rosenwald characterized the future of need-blind admissions as primarily financial. It is "not a moral or intellectual issue ... [it is] a dollars issue," he said.
Rosenwald said the Trustees decided five years ago to protect the need-blind admissions policy and will continue to protect it as long as possible.
Trustee Andrew Sigler, the head of the Trustee Finance Committee, said in a statement no new policies are being considered.
