Some Other Universities Get It Nearly Right

by David Safier

Yesterday I wrote about Stanford’s decision that any student whose family’s income is under $100,000 a year won’t have to pay tuition, and if it’s under $60,000, they won’t have to pay room and board either.

In a comment, azw88 asked, “Will we see something similar from Yale, Harvard and other top flight schools?”

I was intrigued, so I decided to see where Google would lead me. I found colleges and universities that have substituted grants and work-study jobs for loans, so you’ll come out of school without owing a penny – for tuition, room and board, anyway. Others weren’t so generous.

But before I give you my partial list, let me state my top three reasons why both free tuition and finding ways other than loans to pay for college are great ideas.

First is the benefit to the lower-and-middle income students. They have the opportunity to go to the best schools that accept them. This means they will be with their intellectual peers working at the top of their capacities, which is great. And almost as important, it means they will be “in the network.”

Let’s face it, when it comes to professional advancement, Who you know is right up there with What you know. Any number of jobs go to people from the top colleges and universities because that’s where the top head hunters go first when they’re looking for new hires. And getting to know a kid whose father knows someone whose friend is the CEO of . . . There’s no better way to score a great entry level job.

Second, if you graduate without six figure loans, you can afford to take a job that doesn’t pay well. Debt encourages people to go into high paying jobs. Graduates without debt can afford to be teachers, legal aid lawyers, social workers, and so on. That’s good for the country.

The third benefit is to the students who can afford the tuition, and to society in general. Diversity among equals is a great way to lessen prejudice and discrimination. If your roommate/classmate/fellow debater/Lacrosse teammate comes from a different class or ethnic group from you, chances are, for the rest of your life, you’ll see those people as human beings, not as statistics. If tomorrow’s power brokers have broader personal experiences and understanding, they benefit, and so does the country.

OK, I’m through philosophizing. Here’s what I found. The management is not responsible for the accuracy of the claims below. I only know what I read on the web. Check it out yourself, and if you find information about other places, use the Comments to let us know what you found.

Harvard: “Parents of admitted students whose annual income is less than $60,000 are not expected to contribute anything to tuition and fees.” The median debt at graduation is $6,850.
Yale: “Families with incomes of $60,000 to $120,000 will contribute 1 percent to 10 percent of the student’s bill.”
Princeton, Amherst and Davidson: “Amherst joined Princeton and Davidson this summer as the only colleges whose financial aid packages do not include any student loan component. … Your financial aid package will be made up entirely of work-study and grant aid.”

“Several colleges and universitites, (including Harvard, Brown, Columbia, Penn, and Emory) eliminate student loans for low-income students. Some state schools (such as Michigan State, Indiana, and UNC-Chapel Hill) offer similar programs for low-income students from within their respective states.”