According to the University's financial aid website, for cases in which a student's financial aid award includes a campus job "we typically expect freshmen to work 7.5 hours per week, which allows them ample time for studies and extracurricular activities." This requirement goes up to 8.5 hours per week for non-freshmen. The Undergraduate Financial Aid booklet explains that students on aid are typically expected to contribute $2,275 to the cost of the education each year from an on-campus job. It suggests that "Undergraduates can assume responsibility for meeting a portion of their college expenses by: (1) working during both the academic year and the summer; (2) contributing a portion of their own savings as well as education benefits; (3) receiving a scholarship or grant from outside the University; and (4) borrowing a student loan."
There are, however, substantial problems with this financial aid policy. Let's start from the bottom. The fourth option, asking students to take out a loan, makes a mockery of the University's "no loan" policy. The third option, receiving a scholarship or grant, is not realistic for all students. Many middle-class students cannot access need-based scholarships or grants, and not every student will win a merit-based scholarship. The second option, contributing more than $2,000 from a student's savings, is unrealistic for many students. If students have those funds, they would be better used for purposes other than paying for tuition, both during and after college. The first option, taking a job during the academic year and the summer, is the only viable one. Yet, it is still a bad one.
There are opportunity costs to working in a mandatory job while at Princeton. Including class time and homework, most students spend about seven to eight hours a week on each course. Asking students to contribute 7.5 hours a week to work is like adding another class to their course-laden and extracurricular-heavy schedule. If you are busy washing dishes you can't be studying or leading a club. If you have to work in the summer, then you cannot take an unpaid internship. (While students can get money from the University to cover living expenses for the summer, these grants are not intended to increase a student's savings.) As a result, the current financial aid policy fails to live up to its goal of allowing lower income students to participate in the University without handicaps.
Time is money. At Princeton, the opposite is true, too; money buys time.
Of course, something can be said for teaching students the value of a dollar through good, old-fashioned hard work. Yet, if the University truly believes this, why not require all students to hold a campus job? Either way, we should all be on a level playing field.
Fortunately, the solution to this problem is relatively simple. The University already provides Cane Scholarships to all New Jersey public school students on financial aid. A condition of this scholarship is that recipients are not required to work during the school year or contribute from their summer savings. Nassau Hall needs only to expand this policy. The University spent $82 million on financial aid this past year. If the administration offered Cane Scholarships to all students on financial aid, this figure is highly unlikely to break nine digits. Regardless, there should be no higher priority for the administration than levelling .
Precisely because the economy is so bad right now, Nassau Hall urgently needs to redouble its commitment to financial aid. Even in these tough times, this is something we can afford. In light of the University of Maryland report, it is urgent that the University do so soon. The administration has already said that money will not stop a student from becoming a Tiger. The University should take the next step and declare that money won't play a role in the quality of a student's experience here, either.
Adam Bradlow is a sophomore from Potomac, Md., and a member of Wilson College. He can be reached at abradlow@princeton.edu.
Read More
Can a bacchanal Reunions be a sustainability lab?
Darren MilmanThe path to a net-zero Reunions remains uncertain. But Earth Brands’ story proves that the same university known for beer jackets and century-old traditions can also launch the next wave of sustainable solutions.
The path to a net-zero Reunions remains uncertain. But Earth Brands’ story proves that the same university known for beer jackets and century-old traditions can also launch the next wave of sustainable solutions.
$56,000 in debt at graduation is not the financial aid Princeton advertises
Avi CheslerTake my story as an example — despite repeated evidence, both before and after taking out loans, that I would be unable to pay what Princeton asked of me — the University never set a cost that I could truly meet loan-free.
In the Garden State’s service and the service of humanity
Olivia Ragan, Lauren Aung, and Madison LintonIt is important to cultivate in students interest in local and state level change, because it is the most direct way to give back to the New Jersey community that sustains the University.