The College's new financial-aid policy, which drastically cut tuition for low- and middle-income families, took effect this fall, eliminating tuition for families that earn less than $75,000 each year and replacing all loans with grants for incoming students. Current students saw 50 percent of their loans replaced with grants.
The new plan, announced in January, also extends need-blind admissions to international students and eliminated the earning requirement for students on leave terms.
College President James Wright told The Dartmouth in January that Dartmouth's financial-aid offer for low-income families was "the strongest in the nation."
In an interview with The Dartmouth this month, associate Vice-President for Fiscal Affairs Julie Dolan said that the new initiatives are of key importance to the College.
"It's one of the president's most important priorities," she said. "Keeping Dartmouth accessible to all students is absolutely paramount."
Much of the funding for the new financial-aid program comes from the Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience, a $1.3 billion capital campaign, which aims to raise $150 million for financial-aid endowments, Dolan said.
The College's Office of Development has stated that the $1.3 billion campaign will allocate $166 million to financial-aid programs.
The changes to Dartmouth's financial-aid plan came on the heels of similar reforms at peer institutions across the country. These changes include Harvard University's decision to peg tuition at 10 percent of income for families making under $180,000 a year, changes to Yale University's plan that cut costs by over half for families making under $120,000 and by a third for those making under $200,000, and the University of Pennsylvania's decision to replace loans with grants for families making under $100,000 a year.
Director of Financial Aid Virginia Hazen said that Dartmouth conducts an annual review of its financial-aid program to ensure that it is fair towards students and competitive with peer institutions. She said the actions of other Ivy League schools convinced the College administration that it needed to change its program in order to remain competitive.
For the Class of 2012, the average scholarship award is $33, 240, according to Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Maria Laskaris '84, an increase from the average scholarship of $30,064 for the Class of 2011.
Changes to the College's financial-aid program have helped current students at the college, not only by lifting the financial burden but also by giving students a wider range of leave-term opportunities.
Ben Kahn '11 said that the removal of the leave-term earning requirement allowed him to apply for the First Year Fellowship, a public policy internship program in Washington, D.C.
If that requirement were not waived, he said, he would have had to spend the summer working instead of attending the program.
"That allowed me -- guilt-free -- to pursue an internship where I wasn't earning any money, knowing that I was going to be losing money over the summer, but knowing that I wasn't expected to earn any," Kahn said.
While current students have benefitted from the financial-aid changes, incoming students receive a much greater benefit, due to both increased aid coverage and the elimination of loans.
Due to the financial-aid changes, Sebastian Ramirez-Brunner '11 saw his scholarship from the College increase by over $9,000. However, his brother Zachary Ramirez-Brunner '12, receives an additional $5,000 from the College. Sebastian is also supplementing his scholarship from the College with a federal Stafford Loan, while Zachary's financial aid package consists solely of grants.
Zachary Ramirez-Brunner described Dartmouth's financial-aid package as an important factor in his decision to matriculate.
Referring to his financial-aid package, he said, "I got that right off the bat, and that was certainly an incentive." He also noted that without receiving aid he would not have been able to afford tuition at Dartmouth. Sebastian Ramirez-Brunner is a member of The Dartmouth Staff.
