Alex Johnson '16 spent his summer working several odd jobs, volunteering at an orphanage in Mexico and fundraising so that he could afford to come back to Dartmouth for his sophomore year. Due to fiscal instability worsened by health care costs and familial crises, Alex Johnson and his twin brother Nick Johnson have been supporting themselves financially since they were 14, both working a hodgepodge of jobs at stores ranging from Polo Ralph Lauren to Pillow Pets.
During the fall of 2012, Nick Johnson began attending Northeastern University in Boston, while Alex Johnson came to Hanover to attend Dartmouth, his dream school.
Alex Johnson paid for his tuition and undergraduate fees through a combination of grants from the College, loans, federal aid scholarships and money earned from campus jobs during the school year.
This year, the twins' financial circumstances shifted.
The total cost of attendance at Northeastern rose to $13,000, and Nick Johnson was forced to move back to Washington, potentially rendering the brothers ineligible for a federal grant, which requires that both siblings be enrolled in college.
Nick Johnson decided to attend community college, and in order to cover those costs and keep the federal subsidy allowing Alex Johnson to afford Dartmouth, the brothers needed to raise $3,000.
Turning to a new form of fundraising, the Johnson twins used the free online site youcaring.com to create a web page supporting their cause, complete with a short video and pictures.
Donations started to flow in, and within two weeks, the brothers had garnered enough donations to reach their goal.
After raising $3,115, Nick Johnson was able to enroll in community college, allowing his brother to return to Dartmouth.
Individual donations ranged from $10 to $1,400, coming from family members, friends and anonymous contributors. When the idea was first suggested to Alex Johnson by a mentor whom he considers an "adoptive mother," he was skeptical about launching an online funding campaign.
"I learned to give things a chance," Alex Johnson said. "I discredited the idea at first I thought it was silly I hate asking people for money."
With a tuition of $45,444 and an overall cost of attendance rounding out at over $60,000 per year, Dartmouth is currently the second most expensive Ivy League university. Around 45 percent of students at the College currently receive financial aid.
Though his parents do not contribute financially to his education, Johnson receives about $17,000 in financial aid from Dartmouth, about a third of tuition costs.
Financial aid is calculated by looking at a household's ability to pay, not parental willingness, financial aid director Virginia Hazen said.
"I shouldn't be having to do fundraisers or work 45 hours a week to be able to stay here when there is supposed to be a financial issues won't keep any students from attending Dartmouth' policy," Alex Johnson said.
Along with a three-course work load, Johnson worked four different jobs last school year. He was an assistant to education professor Andrew Garrod, a tutor at America Reads and the Kids After School Time program at the Ray School in Hanover and a storeroom associate at the Class of 1953 Commons.
Hazen said she strongly recommends against students working so much during the school year.
"They need to sit down and talk to the parents about contributing what is expected of the parents," Hazen said.
Hazen said more parents are expecting students to pay for a larger portion of their educational costs, but added that it would be hard to speculate what contributes to the trend.
This year, Johnson took out the maximum student loan, $6000 for two terms.
Johnson said he cuts costs by "living off the meal plan" and keeping personal expenses to an absolute minimum. The most stressful times are the end of each term, when in addition to finals, he receives his D-Pay financial statement.
"Even though I'd make enough money in the next three weeks to cover it, I had to borrow money from friends and move money around so I wouldn't have to pay late fees," Alex Johnson said.
Johnson hopes to go to medical school and become an emergency room physician, though he has begun to worry about how he will support this goal.
"Even if you have to take an unconventional route, there are often a lot more ways than it seems to get what you want," Alex Johnson said.
