International students to get winter grant

International students on financial aid will receive an allowance to defray winter break expenses, Undergraduate Financial Aid Director Robin Moscato confirmed yesterday.

Beginning this year, undergraduate aid recipients who do not live in North America will receive $400 to cover the cost of food or travel during the holiday season.

The allowance is "intended to help cover your food expenses if you remain on campus, or defray travel costs if you choose to go away during the break," Moscato said in an email to students receiving the allowance. The students will receive the funds, either by direct deposit or by a check sent to their campus mailbox, and the allowance will be paid regardless of any outstanding debt to the University.

"We wanted to be sure the funds wouldn't be held up, even if money is owed, so that students can make their plans for winter break," Moscato said. "I think that, all around, this will be a very satisfactory arrangement for the students."

The allowance was approved by the Priorities Committee last fall. It was the "third or fourth" request that the financial aid office had made to the committee for the allowance, Moscato said.

The figure of $400 was deemed roughly equivalent to the amount a student would spend on food over winter break or the cost of travel in the Northeast.

Students on financial aid who live in the United States, Canada or Mexico receive funding for two round-trips to Princeton each academic year, but other students who live abroad only receive an allowance for one round-trip each year. Travel allowances are calculated each year based on where a student lives.

"We're very happy about the allowance because it helps to reduce, if not eliminate, the only remaining disparity between international student aid and U.S. student aid," Moscato said. "In all other ways the aid program treats U.S. and international students the same."

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International Students Association at Princeton (ISAP) publicity chair Mirela Hristova '09, who is from Ruse, Bulgaria, said the funds were still insufficient to allow international students to go home.

"Four hundred dollars might be enough to defray some winter break costs, but the amount is definitely not sufficient to cover plane tickets," Hristova said. "I actually do know some people who end up staying on campus for the holidays simply because they can't afford to go home. It's a shame that a university with such an endowment remained, at least until recently, oblivious of that fact."

She suggested that the University scale the grant according to where each student lives, if the money is being used to travel home.

ISAP president Megan Chiao '09 said that the allowance would not be sufficient to allow students to go home who would otherwise not have been able to afford plane tickets. A ticket home to Singapore for winter break, she said, would cost $2,000.

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Chiao agreed, however, that the allowance would be sufficient to cover the meal costs of students who don't go home over break.

Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Students Rachel Baldwin, who is also the ISAP administrator, also said the allowance would be adequate.

"Provided that students do not plan to take all of their meals via restaurants on Nassau Street ... if students buy groceries and consider cooking or preparing food on their own by using Murray Dodge, Dodge-Osborn, Edwards, etc., this grant will be more than sufficient for the time during winter recess, when the dining halls and/or Frist are closed," she said in an email.

Chiao also said that, overall, the University offers very generous financial aid packages to international students, especially in comparison to those offered by other American colleges.

"In most U.S. universities, it is very difficult for international students to receive any form of financial aid at all, and more so at state colleges. In fact, Princeton was the only university that offered me financial aid out of all the 10 U.S. universities I applied to — this was a major factor in choosing to come here," she said.