<p>I think these "no loan" financial aid pledges are going to be hugely important to a lot of families in these uncertain economic times. People have seen their investment portfolios and home equity shrink. Some have lost jobs or face uncertain prospects of retaining theirs. College loans may be hard to secure in the current credit crunch The total dollar figure on the financial aid package (grants + loans + work/study) may no longer be enough. A lot of people are going to be looking at "net cost of attending": COA less grants/scholarships. Loans are just a self-help financing mechanism, not a reduction in cost per se. Same with work/study, IMO; it's money you need to work for, and at most schools students can get pretty much the same jobs and same income whether it's counted as part of the FA package or not---it's money you're contributing to your own education.</p>
<p>I think the chart below is pretty revealing, and perhaps surprising:</p>
<p><a href="http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/Pledges_Analysis.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/Pledges_Analysis.pdf</a></p>
<p>At the $20,000 and $40,000 family income levels, the University of California system (in-state) is actually more expensive on a net COA basis than any of the private colleges listed here. </p>
<p>At the $60,000 income level, the UCs are about as costly (net COA) as many top privates, but still more expensive than any of the Ivies, Stanford, or Caltech. </p>
<p>At the $80,000 income level, there's wide divergence among the privates, ranging from a low net COA of $6,048 at Yale to a high of $26,120 at Northwestern. The UCs are in the middle of the pack at $19,828, about the same as schools like Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Davidson, Haverford, Pomona, Williams, and Wellesley.</p>
<p>At the $120,000 income level, Harvard, Yale and Princeton are less than half the cost of other privates. At $25,039, the UCs are costlier than HYP but significantly cheaper than other private schools. </p>
<p>At the $160,000 level, most privates expect the student and family to pay full COA, generally just under $50,000. The UCs are roughly half that, at $25,039. But Harvard at $20,000 and Yale at $22,878 are still the cheapest options, and Princeton is only slightly more than the UCs at $26,171.</p>
<p>At the $200,000 level, all privates except HYP are at full COA, again nearly $50,000. At half that price, the UCs are by far the cheapest option, but Princeton at $31,129 and Yale at $31,810 (and possibly Harvard, data n/a) are much closer to the UCs than to the other privates (including such heavy hitters as MIT and Stanford).</p>
<p>Individual results may vary depending on assets, age, family size, etc. I think these figures call into question a lot of common generalizations about college costs and financial aid. In-state publics are not always "financial safeties," especially at the lower end of the income scale. At the higher end of the income scale, in-state publics certainly ARE financial safeties. But the assumption that private schools are more or less alike in their financial aid policies is also wildly wrong. Harvard, Yale and Princeton are far more generous than other privates in their grant aid (and therefore have the lowest net COA) at every income level, even up to $200,000, and by a surprisingly wide margin. Private schools are cost-competitive with publics (assuming the UCs are representative) up to an income level of about $80,000; above that level, the costs of privates far exceed those of publics, except for HYP which stand as a special category.</p>