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Tufts eliminates loans for low-income students
December 19, 2007 </p>
<p>MEDFORD, Mass.?Tufts University is making it easier to afford attending the school by replacing loans with grants for undergraduate students whose families make less than $40,000 a year.</p>
<p>Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Coffin says the program will enable some of the neediest families to send their children to Tufts.</p>
<p>The current freshman class already is benefiting from the program, which will now be extended to future freshman classes. The university granted $42 million in financial aid this year.</p>
<p>Tufts has about 5,000 undergraduates, 40 percent of whom receive some sort of financial aid. Tufts tuition is about $49,000 per year.</p>
<p>As the January 1st application deadline approaches, I wanted to alert you to an important change in Tufts' need-based financial aid policy. </p>
<p>Effective immediately, Tufts will replace student loans with a university grant for any accepted student with a family income below $40,000. Moreover, recent gifts to the University will enable Tufts to offer more than $14 million in need-based financial aid to members of our next freshman class. The University will continue to meet the full, demonstrated need of each domestic student offered admission.</p>
<p>The University introduced the loan replacement policy last year on a trial basis, and the results were impressive: Tufts enrolled the most socio-economically diverse freshman class in our history. Tufts replaced student loans with grants for more than 100 members of the Class of 2011 and the number of Pell Grant recipients, Federal grants offered to students with incomes below $40,000, soared 60 percent over the previous year. Clearly, these outcomes are meaningful ones as Tufts works to sustain and enhance our economically-diverse undergraduate community. </p>
<p>Tufts' enduring and deep commitment to need-based financial aid reflects our founding mission to offer broad-based access to a Tufts education. In that spirit, the new policy and expanded financial aid resources guarantee that students from an array of economic backgrounds will continue to benefit from our transformative undergraduate experience in the liberal arts and engineering. </p>
<p>We are excited by this new initiative and proud that the University has the necessary resources to make it a reality. As you file applications in the coming days, we hope you share our enthusiasm about these new opportunities and their potential impact on the diversity of Tufts' student body.</p>
<p>Best wishes,</p>
<p>Lee Coffin
Dean of Undergraduate Admissions</p>
<p>What is included under this -40k thing?
Is it only tuition or is it a combination of everything (i.e supplies, tuition,boarding, food, personal/travel expenses)?</p>