Building on excellence

Last week, the University turned over the records of how it uses its endowment to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. It did this in an attempt to rectify former testimony in front of the Committee that it felt misconstrued how universities use their endowments to aid students. While the University does have one of the best no-loan financial aid programs in the country there are still ways that it could use the endowment to improve financial aid and cast a wider net by encouraging more low-income students to apply.

First, the University should offer a "low-income guarantee," such as the one Harvard supports, ensuring a free ride to students whose family income is lower than a certain limit. While the University's financial aid program is one of the most generous in the country, having a guarantee similar to Harvard's would raise awareness of this fact. This is a simple action that would mean more lower-income students applying to Princeton, a goal that is high on the University's list.

Another way to increase the number of applications from low-income students is to abolish application fees. There is already a "fee waiver" application that can be filled out by students, but it is a complicated process, and in many cases, the fee presents an undue burden on prospective students, deterring them from applying. Of course, total abolition of the fee may result in an increased workload for the Admission Office. Creative solutions exist, however, such as working with the other Ivy League universities to offer students two application fee waivers to use in applying to any school in the Ivy League. The system could be implemented quite easily by students checking boxes on their applications, and applications being compared between schools just like they were compared for early decision. If an applicant attempts to waive the fee for more than two schools, then they must pay the fee for all of the schools they apply to. Of course, the fee waivers that currently exist could still remain in place for students who wish to pursue this route.

Such modifications to the University's financial aid and application process could act as a recruiting tool. These small adjustments would not be a substantial burden on the University, and would increase applications from lower income students, thereby creating a more diverse student body.