Dartmouth will award more than $72 million in financial aid an all-time high for the College, and 13 percent higher than last year to members of all four classes for the current academic year, according to Dean of Admissions Maria Laskaris. Laskaris attributed the increase to the current recession.
"The economic downturn was clearly a factor this past year, as we saw growth in the number of students who applied for financial aid, as well as the percentage of the class receiving financial aid," Laskaris said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth.
The percentage of the freshman class receiving monetary assistance from the College has also increased, Laskaris said. About 52 percent of freshmen receive financial aid. About 47 percent of students in Classes of 2010, 2011 and 2012 were on financial aid at the time of matriculation, Laskaris said.
The size of the average scholarship also increased, from $33,240 for the Class of 2012 last year to $35,400 for the Class of 2013.
Princeton University also awarded the largest amount of financial aid in its history this year, providing $103.5 million in need-based scholarships to its undergraduate students, according to the university's director of financial aid Robin Moscato.
"The recession has certainly impacted our families," Moscato said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "We saw an increase in applications, and we increased the scholarship budget to meet these needs."
Harvard University's undergraduate financial aid office awarded a record-breaking $145 million to over half of its undergraduates, according to the Harvard College Office of Admissions web site.
Undergraduates at Columbia University received over $92 million in aid for the 2009-2010 year, the Columbia financial aid and educational financing web site states.
Both Harvard and Columbia cited the economic downturn as the principal cause of their respective increases in financial aid allocations.
Dartmouth economics professor Bruce Sacerdote, however, said the economy may not be the main factor leading to the rise in financial aid applications at Ivy League institutions.
"I would think that it's a response to the increasing generosity of all the Ivies rather than a response to the economy," Sacerdote said. "It's hard to know."
Sacerdote added that the schools' endowments have generally performed well and that alumni have been very supportive.
"I think the story has its roots in the success of the endowments, as opposed to the crash of the economy," he said.
Despite the current economic recession, institutions of higher education should be able to continue distributing elevated levels of aid, Sacerdote said.
"I'm quite optimistic that they'll be able to do that," he said. "As much as schools are feeling the pinch as a result of last year's market, I think it was just a blip."
