<p>princeton trustees have approved a 7% increase in the university's financial aid budget, boosting the budget from $81 million to $86.7 million. to put this in perspective, yale, which is slightly larger, recently increased its aid budget from $56 million to $80 million. also of note, princeton decided to tie its increase in total fees - up 3.9% this year - to the expected increase in earnings of those who actually pay full freight. this makes as much or more sense than yale's decision to tie its fee increase to inflation. even with the increase, princeton maintains its status of having the lowest sticker price among the elites, while outspending yale et al to bring the price down for aid recipients. </p>
<p>The way that Princeton has responded to Harvard's and Yale's new financial aid policies is interesting. It appears that Princeton has chosen not to frame things in terms of percentage of annual income (as Harvard and Yale have done) so as not to appear to be copying them. Princeton wants to be recognized as having the best aid program of the elite schools, and copying Harvard or Yale would hurt its efforts to achieve this reputation. Still, by having such a muted response to recent changes in the financial aid landscape, Princeton might fall behind in the public eye, with many assuming that Harvard and Yale must have better aid since Princeton hasn't announced a similar program. Time will tell if Princeton's response was the right one.</p>
<p>When you think about it, the only thing that really matters with regards to the quality of a financial aid program is the ratio of the aid budget to the number of students eligible for, and receiving, aid. A clear explanation of the aid program, like Harvard's, may be helpful for a prospective applicant, but it is meaningless until after acceptance, when the actual aid offer is in hand.</p>
<p>Princeton must think that their aid program is at parity with those of H and Y, as evidenced by the couple of web articles concerning their aid program that they have released recently.</p>
<p>Because public rhetoric cannot lead an accepted student to matriculate (As I said before, only the actual aid package in hand could do this), the only other benefit to widely publicizing an aid program is a possible increase in applications. There is little doubt that Harvard's aid announcement was mainly responsible for the surge in applications it experienced this year. Yale's announcement, on the other hand, was too late to cause a surge on a similar scale. Were Princeton to make some sort of highly publicized aid announcement right now, the excitement (and the number of potential applications) would die down by the time the next application season rolled around. Therefore, there is some reason to believe that Princeton is waiting for next fall to make a big announcement, if they do make one at all.</p>
<p>Interesting, but you can't claim that Princeton will be "outspending" Yale or Harvard until you actually see the final results (which will vary by individual student). Although Yale and Harvard quoted a figure for the amount of aid they planned to give out, it was a very rounded figure, and the actual figure may differ because this is the first year of the new aid program. </p>
<p>In other words, you can rest assured that Yale and Harvard will exceed their financial aid budgets, even by a significant margin, if they feel that they need to in order to attract the best students.</p>
<p>Yes I am sure it's true that they would, but the people who come up with the financial aid budgets do so with a variety of statistics on the financial need of the average accepted applicant. Especially in Yale's case (since as ClareQuilty pointed out, Yale announced their program later), it is unlikely that the demographics of the applicant pool will be significantly different than in years past. Thus, the financial aid budget is a reasonably good, though not perfect, measure of the quality of a university's financial aid program.</p>
<p>I agree that a university's financial aid budget is a good measure for some things, but in this case, </p>
<p>A) actual "budgets" have not been announced, i.e., most of the numbers given for next year have been very rough in nature, and probably rounded to the nearest $10M, </p>
<p>B) even if you assumed a certain exact budget level for each of the HYP schools, based on the most recent press announcements, they are all statistically so close to one another that it would be difficult to draw any conclusions, </p>
<p>C) financial aid budgets do not necessarily tell you the overall distribution of aid at each income level or, more grossly speaking, the amount of "aid per aid student" as opposed to "aid per student", and </p>
<p>D) budgets are projections, not actual expenditures, and can be modified at any point. This is especially true of universities.</p>
<p>Of course, there is going to be a huge difference next year between HYP and say, Penn, which, even after its new "announcement" is projecting the same financial aid budget as HYP for twice as many students. From a financial aid perspective, there is no way that Penn is going to be able to compete with HYP. However, the numbers that the posters above have used to compare HYP at this point are not necessarily conclusive.</p>
<p>I agree with the majority of your post but would like to point out that aid per aid student is not a very informative statistic. Giving a $5,000 grant to each of 500 students would yield the same number as giving $5,000 to 1000 students. The latter is clearly preferable. It is better to consider aid per student and percentage of students on aid separately.</p>
<p>i'd venture to guess that harvard now has the most generous financial aid in the country, followed by princeton and yale at around the same level. all three are now no-loan (princeton since 2001), harvard and princeton are no-equity-considered (ditto), and harvard and yale have 10%-of-income guidelines for "middle" income applicants. the budgets bear this out, with harvard at (round numbers to follow) $120 million for 6,700 undergrads, princeton at $87 million for 4,900 undergrads, and yale at $80 million for 5,300 undergrads. of course, as pointed out, the number of aid recipients also matters, and the number varies appreciably between harvard and princeton, where around 55% of students receive institutional aid, and yale, where the no. is around 45%.</p>
<p>According to the YDN, under Yale's new policy, there will actually be more aid per financial aid recipient than there will be at Harvard. Obviously, if the universities attract more aid applicants, they will just increase their budgets. I doubt they would plan to give out a lot of financial aid this year and then just decide to cut that down if more students applied for aid.</p>
<p>$ aid per aid applicant is a better measure than $ aid per student because it shows you more closely the extent to which universities are meeting the demonstrated need of the actual student body -- the exact level of commitment of the university to providing financial aid to students in actual dollar amounts. Aid per student overall is just a theoretical figure because a lot of those people aren't getting anything. Again, if the demographics of a class changed from one year to another, the amount of $ aid per aid applicant would stay the same, not decrease.</p>
<p>Also, I will point out again, that for the reasons above the numbers you are citing are invalid as comparisons.</p>
<p>I can confirm this, because I don't pay a cent to the University (or any loan program). And from what I hear, many students (and international students) don't pay a cent to the U.</p>
<p>I don't pay a cent either. In fact, there's money left over that the University gives me. Of course, this just makes me love Princeton even more, so I'll do all I can to give back, whether it be as a tour guide, or as a future donor, or just as an alumna who will reflect well on the University. Oh yeah, and convince other people to go to Princeton and fall in love with her, too (=</p>
<p>About other universities following Princeton's footsteps. Let's just rejoice together. It's especially welcome news to talented but not rich international students. Also, increased financial aid across the board (and increased publicity about aid), means that even more students from very poor family backgrounds may come to see top-notch education as a reasonable goal instead of an impossible dream.</p>
<p>not likely. as demonstrated above, princeton is still more generous with financial aid than yale is, and was so even before its latest "quiet" reform. yale was really playing catch-up to match moves that princeton had made back in <em>2001</em>, and tellingly, yale still hasn't matched princeton (and now harvard) in excluding home equity. in short, princeton has nothing to fear in any comparison.</p>
<p>All demonstrated need is covered by grants (no loans).</p>
<p>As a result, University grants more than cover my tuition and room and board. </p>
<p>Furthermore, because the student budget includes ~3500 for books and personal needs, ~700 for travel expenses, etc., University grants cover some of these expenses in the student budget as well. This grant money, because it was not meant to pay for University costs (tuition, room & board), becomes "extra" money in my student account, which I can then request to be sent to my checking account. I access this at my own discretion to pay for whatever I need (usually textbooks). </p>
<p>Work study just means that Princeton expects its students to earn ~2000 during the school year to cover expenses in the student budget (easily met by working ~10 hours or less a week). Again, because the student budget includes things like books and travel (the money does not go to Princeton), we get to spend the money we make during work study on what we choose. The earnings I make on work study go directly to my checking account, not to Princeton.</p>
<p>So, this is how I don't pay a single cent to Princeton but rather, have more than enough money to live comfortably. Nor do I feel out of place at Princeton because of my low socioeconomic background, because money is never a barrier to anything I want to do. Also, I can concentrate on my academics and pursuing my extra curricular passions without worrying about making money. Furthermore, this generous culture extends to all aspects of Princeton life. Last year when I couldn't afford to go to Hong Kong with Glee Club, guess what happened? Generous alumni stepped in to cover the fees of all those students who wanted to go but couldn't cover the costs. I paid what I could and alumni covered the rest. I ended up paying less to go to Hong Kong than I would have to return home to California, all because there's this sense of Princeton pride and responsibility that runs through every alumnus I've ever met.</p>
<p>Princeton:
Aid Budget: ~$87 million
Undergraduates receiving aid: ~2695 (4900 undergraduates with ~55% on aid)
Average Grant: ~$32,282 (Aid budget / number of undergraduates on aid)</p>
<p>Yale (With Yale having changed its aid policy so that it now gives aid to wealthier students, the percentage of Yale students on financial aid will increase. Assume that figure increases by a modest 2% overall next year, from 45% to 47%):
Aid Budget: ~$80 million
Undergraduates receiving aid: ~2491 (5300 undergraduates with 47% on aid)
Average Grant: ~$32,115</p>
<p>Harvard:
Aid Budget: ~$120 million
Undergraduates receiving aid: ~3685 (6700 undergraduates with ~55% on aid)
Average Grant: ~$32,564</p>
<p>Obviously, these figures are not completely accurate, due to various estimates and extrapolations. My point was not to determine a ranking of aid quality, but to show that the aid programs of all three schools are (only now) roughly equal. Yes, Harvard and Yale could increase their aid budgets, but of course Princeton could and would as well. Indeed, such an increase would put the least strain on Princeton, being the wealthiest of the three in endowment per student. And Princeton is still saving up a possible big announcement like those made by Harvard and Yale, as it chose to announce its latest aid increase with minimal fanfare. Could there be more to come?</p>