Dartmouth will not be revamping its financial aid policies despite recent changes Princeton and Yale Universities have made to their policies to ease the tuition burden on middle-income families.
Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg commended Dartmouth's current financial aid policies and added that Princeton and Yale's recent policy changes reflect policies which Dartmouth has been practicing on an individual student need basis all along.
Princeton's new policy will not consider home equity as an asset for families with incomes below $90,000. The new policy will also increase grants and decrease loans for students with family incomes between $40,000 and $57,500.
Additionally, Princeton will replace loans with grants for students with family incomes less than $40,000.
"We will make ourselves as affordable as that state university you're thinking about," Princeton spokesman Justin Harmon told the Associated Press.
Yale has decided to exempt up to $150,000 of a family's savings, home equity, as well as other assets from consideration in determining what parents are expected to contribute toward their child's education.
The financial aid policy changes by Princeton and Yale are expected by many financial experts to pressure other Ivies, including Dartmouth, to follow suit.
But Furstenberg said the College currently has no plans to change its financial aid policies.
"We've always had competitive financial aid policies," Furstenberg said. "I don't think the policy changes will affect us much in the short run, but we'll be monitoring things very closely."
Furstenberg said Dartmouth has continually made efforts to meet the financial needs of middle income families.
Several years ago, the College made adjustments to the need analysis formula which often resulted in unrealistic contributions for middle income families, Furstenberg said.
This readjustment increased the availability of scholarships by $1.3 million for about 37 percent of students receiving financial aid, Furstenberg said.
"We have always reduced loans for low income students," Furstenberg said.
For students whose family earns less than $35,000 a year, the College has decreased loans by about $1,000. For a student whose family earns between $35,000 and $40,000 a year, the College decreases loans by about $850, Furstenberg said.
The readjustment of the formula also reduced or eliminated the amount of contribution from assets, such as home equity, for many financial aid recipients which echoes many of the current policy changes by Princeton and Yale, Furstenberg said.
Unlike Princeton's new policy, Dartmouth has always taken individual economic circumstances into account when determining financial aid packages for students.
The College has even employed some of Princeton and Yale's new policies by eliminating home equity as an asset in the past when a student's economic situation required it, Furstenberg said.
Princeton's new policy applies to all students whose families' income fall under a certain income bracket, regardless of individual circumstances.
"It may be good for the students receiving aid, but that kind of economic rationale is a little shaky," Furstenberg said. "Princeton just applies it across the board without looking at all the factors."
Furstenberg said Princeton's motivation to revamp their financial aid policy could be due to the alarming dip in the number of students receiving financial aid.
The number of financial aid students at Dartmouth has increased in recent years, while the number at Princeton has plummeted. The number of financial aid students at Princeton has dropped from 49 percent three years ago to 39 percent last year.
Princeton "has a very high endowment and much of it has been allotted for financial aid," Furstenberg said. "But the number of students on financial aid has been going down recent years and the money needs to be given away."
Furstenberg said Princeton may also stem from the concern of maintaining a diverse socioeconomic environment since a much smaller portion of students are on financial aid than those who are not.
"Princeton's very concerned about socioeconomic diversity," Furstenberg said. "They were very honest about that in their press release."
