Correction appended
Approximately 65 percent of the 22,354 applicants to the Class of 2015 indicated their intent to apply for financial aid, according to Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Maria Laskaris. This year marks the first time since the 2007-2008 academic year that financial aid packages for the incoming class will require loans for families with income levels above $75,000, Laskaris said.
This year's financial aid numbers follow recent College financial aid trends, as last year 65 percent of the 18,755-student applicant pool for the Class of 2014 also applied to receive monetary support, Laskaris said.
In 2010, the College eliminated the no-loans guarantee policy that began with the Class of 2012 in an effort to bridge the $100 million budget deficit announced in February 2010. The revised policy now requires entering students with family incomes over $75,000 to take out loans of $2,500 to $5,500 each academic year, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Admission officers interviewed by The Dartmouth said the reinstitution of required loans for families earning over $75,000 a year did not affect the number of applications received. The new policy may influence the yield of members of the Class of 2015, as more students will choose to attend the College due to its financial aid package offerings, according to Virginia Hazen, director of financial aid.
"I think that most people apply for aid if they need it," Hazen said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "I think it will be more of a factor in admissions applications."
Students currently receiving financial aid will not be affected by the reinstitution of the loan policy and will continue to receive the initial packages they were offered when accepted to the College, according to Hazen.
"I think the one thing that's positive about all of this is that we have managed to keep in place the no-loan policy for the neediest students," Hazen said.
The College's admissions process still does not consider a student's need for aid, Laskaris said.
Although certain incoming students will receive loans as part of their financial aid packages, Dartmouth will continue to meet 100 percent of demonstrated need for all applicants, according to Laskaris. There are no caps or limits on the number of students who can receive aid, Laskaris said.
"Our interpretation of demonstrated need has not changed at all," she said.
The College's applicant pool grew 19 percent this year and the College has seen noticeable increases in the diversity of students applying indicating that the new policy has most likely not affected the initial stages of the application process, according to Laskaris.
"I don't know if the presence of loans in our financial aid program for the [Class of 2015] has detracted from Dartmouth's appeal at this point in the process," Laskaris said.
Many families do not distinguish between different financial aid packages in the beginning of the application process, according to Laskaris.
"As students are comparing financial aid awards once they've been admitted, it may be something that students and families need to take into consideration in making the final decision to matriculate somewhere," Laskaris said.
If an admitted student informs the College that they have received a better offer from another school, the College will see if there are adjustments that can be made to match offers from other schools that continue to operate under no-loans policies, according to Laskaris.
"If it's an [Ivy League] school, we will match it," Hazen said. "If it's a non-Ivy, we probably won't."
Laskaris said the policy likely did not affect the number or types of students who applied for early decision.
"The early decision pool was not appreciably different than early decision pools from prior years," Laskaris said. "The regular pool is a much larger and more diverse pool overall."
Any impact the loan policy has on the class demographics will be known after May 1, the deadline for admitted students to accept Dartmouth's offer of admission, Laskaris said.
Yale University, Harvard University, Princeton University, Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania all offer loan-free financial aid packages, according to their respective websites.
Penn received a record number of applications for their Class of 2015, an increase that Penn Dean of Admissions Eric Furda attributed to the institution's no-loan policies, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported.
Staff reporter Lindsay Brewer contributed to the reporting of this article.
