Dartmouth joins other Ivies in enhancing financial aid packages

Raising the stakes in the highly competitive market for top high school students, Dartmouth College — announcing a $1.6 million initiative last week — became the fourth Ivy League school to increase financial aid in recent months.

More than two months ago, in a small Nassau Hall conference room, President Shapiro — in what may have been his last press conference as University president before the announcement of his successor this spring — predicted schools would follow Princeton's ambitious undergraduate aid plans.

"We had not hoped for a competitive advantage," Shapiro said during the press briefing. "We hoped [what] we did would be followed by our competitors so that education as a whole would be open."

Not willing to relinquish an admissions edge, Harvard University added more than $8 million to its undergraduate financial aid less than three weeks after the Princeton trustees' announcement. Brown University announced a 7.3 percent increase — $3.15 million — in its financial aid budget less than a week later.

As Dartmouth's plan is approved and Stanford University announces its own intention to revamp financial aid policies, Shapiro's prediction has become a reality. No longer questioning which schools will follow the initiative, administrators across the country are now asking who will be left behind amid the increasing costs associated with attracting the most qualified students.

Endowment size may be the deciding factor separating those schools who are able to keep pace with the Ivies and those relegated to a second tier. Though schools are constantly supplementing their financial aid budgets with additional funds, larger, one-time increases like those at Princeton and Harvard often incite peer institutions to match their competitors' plans rather than lost a perceived competitive edge.

"Schools like Harvard, Yale and Stanford are in better situations with endowment per student — like we are — and they have greater ability to match this type of plan," University Vice President for Finance and Administration Richard Spies GS '72 said.

"The smaller schools may not have the resources to make large increases like we did," he added.

The details

Regardless of endowment size and spending capabilities, new financial aid plans typically concentrate funds on loan reductions and lower work contributions. The new Dartmouth plan lowers summer and academic year work contributions by more than $200 and reduces loan requirements by nearly $1500.

Brown University's increased aid is part of that university's focus on undergraduate financial aid, but the administration maintains that there are other issues that are a priority for the university. This increase is part of a larger $5 million pledge to bolster aid packages.

Harvard's plan calls for an additional $2000 in assistance from the university — reducing the self-help portion of costs by 40 percent.

"There are many different ways to increase spending on financial aid, but the bottom line is the overall dollar increase," Spies said. "I'm not saying that [the University's peers] will match us exactly, but I'd be surprised if in five years, they hadn't matched us in their own way."