The University stepped up financial aid awards on Jan. 14 and both Yale and Stanford followed suit with increases of their own. But for schools with more limited financial resources the headlines mean it will be more difficult to attract students.
"(Ivy League schools) are buying students, and that's what they want to do," Boston University Director of Financial Aid Barbara Tornow told the Daily Free Press, the campus newspaper at B.U.
While wealthier universities can meet the new higher financial aid standard, merit scholarship programs at other universities may face increased difficulty attracting students.
"If a student finds it will cost $10,000 to $15,000 instead of $30,000 to $40,000 extra to go to a private institution, maybe some of these middle class families will say that's a good enough deal and take it," said Ben Gose, senior editor of the student section of The Chronicle of Higher Education, a journal that has reported on the recent changes in financial aid policies.
Gose added that the move was designed to compete with other, less selective universities.
"The Princeton folks I talked to were pretty frank in saying that competition from state institutions was their reason for doing that," he said.
'Buying students'
In last week's Daily Free Press article Tornow said she finds the new situation somewhat ironic.
"What really amuses me is that people in the Ivy League have looked down on institutions like B.U. and suggested that we weren't ethical because we were 'buying students' with scholarships or with different types of packages. They are doing the same thing," she told the newspaper.
Yet Princeton officials insisted that the drive to snag students from other universities was not the reason behind the financial aid decision.
"I did not hear any discussions about our competitive position" during the process of designing the aid package, said Director of Undergraduate Financial Aid Don Betterton. However he added that "the main thing we're trying to do is broaden the applicant pool."
Vice President for Finance and Administration Dick Spies GS '72 said the University is not attempting to lure students away from other schools with the new financial aid package.
"Princeton is not trying to 'buy students.' Princeton is trying to send a message to families and follow up on that message," he said.
"The goal is not for Princeton to try and steal students from other schools. And that's true whether you're talking about B.U. or Harvard," Spies said.
"I think the point is for families with limited means to send kids to Princeton, or institutions like Princeton," Spies added.
Broader choices
It is true that new financial aid awards will broaden choices for middle-class students, Gose said.
Spies said he still sees a market for merit scholarship programs.
After all, students and families will be "comparing (a Princeton aid package) to a free ride," said Spies. "The merit scholarship programs, at least the ones that I know of, do much more than we're doing here, if you have a full ride at B.U. or the University of Texas."
Last month, Princeton announced changes in financial aid awards that made headlines nationwide. For families with incomes less than $40,000, the University will replace the standard $4,000 loan with a grant. In addition, for families earning less than $90,000, the value of homes will no longer be included in aid calculations. Other measures were also geared at helping middle-class students and their families.
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