A landmark change in financial aid policy unveiled last January at Princeton University has many colleges playing catch up, but Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg expressed confidence that Dartmouth's plan is competitive.
Princeton's program, unique among non-military American institutions, eliminates student loans from the aid packages at a cost to the university of over $5 million dollars a year.
Adding to the pressure, Princeton saw tangible gains in diversity through its enrolling class of 2005--the first to apply under the new system.
In a report to faculty on Sept. 17, Princeton's Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel announced that the proportion of first-year students on financial aid rose from 40 percent in the fall of 2000 to 46 percent in 2001.
At Dartmouth, 45 percent of the student body and 41 percent of freshmen currently receive aid, according to Furstenberg.
The share of minority students entering Princeton grew to 28.9 percent for the class of 2005 from 26.3 percent in the class of 2004. The number of matriculating African-American students is the second largest in the school's history, and figures have also grown for Asian-American and Hispanic students.
The fallout from Princeton's decision was felt across the country, but particularly at other Ivies and top-tier schools such as Stanford, where endowments are large enough to allow similar changes to aid packages.
Although many schools have taken strong measures to improve their affordability in the last year -- some at costs comparable to Princeton's -- none have implemented no-loan programs.
"We may have a slight philosophical difference with Princeton ... It's not unreasonable for students to have some responsibility," Furstenberg said, pointing out that in recent years, the amount of aid the College has given through grants has grown while loans and other "self-help" forms of payment have decreased.
Harvard University was among the first institutions to respond to Princeton's changes, waiting just three weeks to announce its own radical overhaul in policy. Under its new plan, the amount of money the school expects scholarship recipients to supply annually through loans and jobs dropped from $5,150 to $3,150.
Despite the timing, Director of Admissions Marlyn McGrath-Lewis told The Harvard Crimson that the changes were not intended as a reaction to Princeton's efforts, saying, "We've been planning this one for a long time."
In April, Dartmouth passed a $1.6 million initiative which made the cut-off income for loan exemption $45,000 -- effectively freeing a third of entering freshmen on financial aid from loan obligations.
This served as the second in two major changes to Dartmouth's financial aid program in recent years. The first came three years ago when the school lowered expected contributions from parents and eliminated loans for all students coming from households making less than $30,000 a year.
"We review this every year, and we try to balance fair treatment of students with what the competitive environment is and what Dartmouth can afford," Furstenberg said.
Matching Princeton's no-loan program would be "exceedingly expensive" for the College, Furstenberg noted, estimating the cost at several million.
Notably, Dartmouth lost 14 fewer students to Princeton last spring than in the previous year.
"[Princeton's new plan] didn't seem to have any effect on the class of 2005...We had by far the largest number of minority students ever, as a result of both recruiting and financial aid," Furstenberg said, adding that the College is not considering any further financial aid changes at present.
On Sept. 6, Yale University announced a $7.5 million boost in its aid program despite initial criticism of Princeton's move; Brown University also added $3.15 million to its annual budget shortly after Harvard's announcement.
