<p>i'm not sure what you're asking exactly, newparent. but if it's whether princeton is going to follow harvard's free-under-$60k reform, then then the answer is no. even with this latest reform by harvard, princeton still regards its financial aid as the most generous in the country. it does not use arbitrary earnings cutoffs, but rather examines every applicant's full financial picture. see:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2006/04/04/news/15059.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2006/04/04/news/15059.shtml</a></p>
<p>Princeton, however, has stayed true to its no-loan, individually-based financial aid program since 2001.</p>
<pre><code>The University has, in fact, no specific income level under which parents do not have to contribute.
"The way financial aid works at Princeton is that every case is considered on its own," Vice President and Secretary Robert Durkee '69 said. "Where we begin with any applicant for financial aid is trying to figure out how much a family can afford to pay."
Durkee gave an example to highlight the risks of an income cutoff. Under a financial aid program that has a specific cutoff, a family that makes $40,000 per year and has half a million dollars in savings will receive the same benefits as a family that makes $40,000 per year but has nothing in savings.
In order to avoid this situation, University financial aid officers "take every case on its own and figure out what the family can afford to pay," Durkee said, adding that the University tends "to be more generous than most other schools" because it takes "trying to be fair" into consideration. "Being fair means taking into account a family's full circumstances what kind of resources they have available to them and what kind of expenditures they have," Durkee said.
The University also remains the only school in the country that has eliminated loans from financial aid packages. If a student received two financial aid packages one from the University that required parental contribution and one from Harvard that did not the Princeton package could actually be more generous since it is loan-free, Durkee said.
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<p>Durkee said that he thinks the University's financial aid program is still more generous than Harvard's, but added that what is more important "is that both of us are trying to make sure that there's extensive financial aid available and both of us are trying to make sure that students all around the country are aware that they can attend schools like Princeton, like Harvard."</p>
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<p>One risk that universities who advertise a specific cutoff have is that "students will assume that only students below that number will qualify for financial aid," Durkee explained.</p>
<pre><code>Despite the overwhelming tendency by other institutions to advertise financial aid programs by income levels, the University will continue to operate as it has, Durkee said.
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