<p>News:</a> Dartmouth Drops 'No Loans' - Inside Higher Ed</p>
<p>You gotta wonder who will be next. I would think even Stanford’s very generous financial aid might be a victim of the economy.</p>
<p>Someone from my alma mater’s development office just paid me a visit. He said to me that they’ve had to make some tough decisions lately - a very qualified student needing FA, and a qualified full pay student, they’ve had to take the full pay student. The only thing is they will meet full need of a student once admitted, even if a student didn’t need aid before.</p>
<p>^^Do they advertise themselves as “need blind?” Because the decision you describe is the exact opposite of need blind.</p>
<p>No, they are not need blind, and never advertised as such. Their goal is to make sure every student graduates.</p>
<p>Thumper1, Stanford financial aid it’s not going to change. However tuition is going up by 3.5%.</p>
<p>It is a business…
makes me wonder whether its best to suck it up the first yr and go for aid in yr 2</p>
<p>Stanford finaid is not changing for the upcoming year…and that is good for those who have received their very generous need based aid. I never thought Williams and Dartmouth would change their policies but it DID happen. I can’t imagine that any college is immune to the possibility of changes in the policies on dispersal of institutional aid.</p>
<p>I agree, Thumper. Both Swarthmore and Amherst have said they are keeping their no-loans programs, but that this could change in the future (as could any budget item) depending on changing circumstances.</p>
<p>Amherst’s president said that the faculty voted to reintroduce loans (as did Williams’ faculty), but the college decided to preserve the policy because it had accomplished one of the original objectives, which was to get better representation on campus of middle class students. I found that kind of interesting. I can see how without something like that you could easily end up with a strange culture of poor students (who were already getting very generous aid) and wealthy students who could pay. Kind of a doughnut hole.</p>
<p>Dartmouth announced today that tuition for its 2010-2011 academic year will be $39,978, an increase of 4 percent from the current year’s tuition.** Tuition covers about half the cost of a Dartmouth education, with the balance met primarily through income from endowment investments and annual giving.**</p>
<p>The College will continue its commitment to provide free tuition and a no-loans expectation for students with family incomes of $75,000 a year or less — part of a policy it instituted two years ago under which loans were eliminated for all financial aid recipients regardless of family income.</p>
<p>However, beginning with the Class of 2015, which will matriculate in the fall of 2011, Dartmouth will meet financial aid needs of students with family incomes above $75,000 through a mix of loans, scholarships, and work study.</p>
<p>[Dartmouth</a> News - Dartmouth announces 4.6% increase in tuition, room, board and fees for 2010-2011; Smallest percentage increase in five years](<a href=“http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2010/02/08a.html]Dartmouth”>http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2010/02/08a.html)</p>