Many prospective students have more on their minds besides evaluating classes or sneaking into fraternity basements -- gifted middle-class students must weigh whether attending a top-tier college like Dartmouth is worth the loans their parents will be taking out for that name brand to adorn their sweatshirts and eventually their college diplomas.
High school seniors begin the financial aid process by filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form, from which they receive estimated family contribution numbers. Colleges use these EFCs to determine the amounts of financial aid their applicants will receive. However, as New York Times writer Hubert Herring pointed out in a recent article, "Your Child Got Into an Ivy! Do You Have to Say Yes?" this formula often assigns EFC numbers that place absurd monetary expectations on some middle-class families.
"The federal formula is over-simplified and out of date," Director of Financial Aid Virginia Hazen said. "The simplification makes it impossible for families to accurately portray their true financial circumstances and ends up with families who look similar on the surface but who actually have very different financial circumstances, being treated the same."
As a result, these middle-class families receive EFC numbers that deny them significant financial aid, while some receive none at all. This situation leaves many high school seniors with a dilemma: whether to attend the school of their dreams and convince their parents to mortgage their home or to accept merit aid at a less prestigious school.
Lia Cheek, a prospective student from Boston, said she is trying to choose between significant merit awards and need-based aid offers from Oberlin College and Mt. Holyoke and a lesser financial aid package at Dartmouth.
"My parents are pushing for the other two," she said, adding that she had just visited the financial office, where they advised her to note Massachusetts' higher taxes on her appeal form.
Sunny Lou, a prospective student form Wayland, Mass., said she is struggling between a significant merit scholarship offer at Rice University and her admissions offer to Dartmouth, which includes no financial aid package.
Lou said she preferred Dartmouth, but felt that money was too big a factor to ignore. "Rice would cost a quarter of what Dartmouth does, so I'd have to convince myself that this is four times better," she said.
In an Atlantic Monthly article titled "Who Needs Harvard?" author Gregg Easterbrook questioned the perceived value of a prestigious degree, at least in terms of business influence. USA Today pointed out that among newly appointed CEOs of Fortune 1,000 companies in 2005, only one CEO had an Ivy League graduate degree.
Academics have also investigated whether the extra expenses for an elite education really do result in a valuable return on investment -- namely, higher incomes and distinguished positions after graduation.
Princeton economist Alan B. Krueger conducted a study suggesting that bright students who were admitted to selective colleges earned higher than average incomes no matter which schools they attended. The paper posited that smart, motivated students will succeed wherever they go and regardless of the tuition bills they pay.
Most Dartmouth students who would have received significant scholarships elsewhere would like to believe otherwise.
"I know I would have gotten a great education at the University of Texas, " Pooja Viswanath '07 said. "And of course you're going to think of the burden you're putting on your parents. But I think that you're also paying for the experience here."
Viswanath enrolled at Dartmouth despite UT's offer of a $5,000 business honors program scholarship that would have made her in-state tuition bills negligible. Viswanath's parents also offered to buy her a car and pay for her law school costs if she attended Texas.
Before applying early decision to Dartmouth, Dave Waslen '07 considered attending Division I universities such as Drake University, where he would have received substantial scholarships to play tennis. Since Ivy League institutions do not offer merit or athletic scholarships, Waslen is receiving no aid from the College.
"I think I'll have a better idea if the cost was worth it after I graduate," Waslen said. "I feel as though if it's recognizable by employers that I went to an Ivy League and I can get an upper edge in business recruiting processes, then maybe it is worth it," he said.
