<p>Davidson College will announce today that it will change future financial aid packages so that students will no longer need to borrow anything. This revamped financial aid policy will put Davidson out in front of other liberal arts colleges, including some with much larger endowments.</p>
<p>An email sent at 9 am to students from our President. </p>
<p>Dear Davidson Student,</p>
<p>I am writing with the news that students of Davidson College will have their demonstrated financial need funded entirely by grants and student employment, beginning in August 2007.</p>
<p>The Trustees of the college unanimously adopted this new financial aid policy, which eliminates loans from all financial aid packages. Davidson will maintain its strict commitment to practicing need-blind admission. </p>
<p>Davidson College will meet 100 percent of the demonstrated need with grants and student employment. Of course, students and families still have the option to take out education loans as a matter of personal financing.</p>
<p>The Trustees believe that this action is the necessary response to the financial situation facing many applicants and their families, and that it is consistent with a core value of the college—that a Davidson education should be affordable to all students, regardless of means. The college family’s longtime support of financial aid provided a platform of both leadership for and confidence in this historic change in policy.</p>
<p>Chief among our goals is the ability to attract capable and committed students—like you—regardless of financial circumstances. The college has long been seeking and implementing ways to minimize the financial burden on Davidson families, and this new policy is part of that ongoing effort.</p>
<p>In order to give students the opportunity to graduate from Davidson debt-free, the Trustees identified and committed the immediate funding needed to initiate this policy, while formally committing to a strategy for raising new monies to endow the program. Tuition increases will continue to be reserved solely for the improvement of the educational and residential experience of Davidson students.</p>
<p>This is an historic moment for Davidson. We are the first national liberal arts college in the nation to take such an action, but it is our hope that others will follow a similar course, making affordable to any qualified student the kind of educational experience that changes lives. </p>
<p>We are proud to have you as a member of the college family, and invite you to celebrate a decision that will strengthen your alma mater in myriad ways.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Bobby</p>
<p>WOW---That's awesome. That'll affect a ton of students when they are choosing Davidson among several schools. So that means that if we are accepted, our financial aid awards will have no loan amounts in them?</p>
<p>Wonderful! So it's official now! I posted about this back in October when I heard the news from an admissions officer at a Davidson road show.
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=253683%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=253683</a></p>
<p>Their applications will skyrocket, I think.</p>
<p>Patsmom, thanks for reposting the link to your older thread. Here is an excerpt from another article in The State, that describes Davidson's new financial aid plan as a "marketing coup": </p>
<p>
[quote]
Davidson College, a private, elite liberal arts college near Charlotte, plans to eliminate loans from its financial aid packages by substituting grants and student employment to allow every student to graduate debt-free.</p>
<p>The new policy, set to be announced today , is a marketing coup...</p>
<p>About a third of Davidson's 1,700 students require financial assistance. In the past, that came in the form of grants, loans and campus employment.</p>
<p>The cost of attending Davidson is $38,784 a year. But loans to cover that cost can create substantial debt for graduates. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 26 percent of Davidson students received loans that averaged $8,384 a year in the 2004-05 school year...</p>
<p>"The trustees are deeply committed to this new policy that will be funded entirely with new moneys," John F. McCartney, chairman of Davidson's board, said in a prepared statement.</p>
<p>To permit students to graduate from Davidson debt-free, trustees have committed existing money and have plans to raise more, said McCartney.</p>
<p>The Davidson plan applies only to loans obtained through the school to pay tuition, fees, room and board. College officials said they have no control over students and their families who obtain privately arranged loans.</p>
<p>?This new policy is the necessary response to the financial situation facing many applicants and their families, and know it is consistent with a core value of the college,? said Davidson president Robert F. Vagt.</p>
<p>The new policy will take effect in August.</p>
<p>Davidson officials said the college will maintain needs-blind admissions, meaning a family's ability to pay has no bearing on whether a student is admitted...
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<p>See also:</p>
<p>wait..so if im accepted ED, im GUARANTEED To be graduating (assuming i graduate) from Davidson with absolutely no debt? ..?</p>
<p>NOT TRUE....people often get this confused.You may very well graduate with debts, it just won't have occurred from loans received by or through Davidson College.Your parents may still have to take out loans from a prvate company to cover the costs of your EFC that the college decides.
Thus, lets say your parents can afford to pay approx. 25,000 in college tuition but Davidson College feels that for your submitted financial information your family can afford to pay 30,000 and they will give you the rest in grants and student employment. Your parents will be forced to take out 5,000 from a private loan company to cover the 5,000 the college claims your family can pay that they financially cannot afford.Hey, its not a perfect system and still has its potential drawbacks and the classic "catch" but its still a lot better than other schools.</p>
<p>its good that they have removed loans...but yea you can still have a debt....in such cases though you can always request the college to re-consider your aid package and it might work out then</p>