As endowment drops, U. gives record financial aid

Sixty percent of the Class of 2013 received some form of financial aid, with an average grant of $35,309, up nearly 5 percent from last year’s average of $33,671 for the Class of 2012.

Provost Christopher Eisgruber ’83 explained in an e-mail that though Annual Giving, a major source of the financial aid budget, failed to meet its projected $56 million goal for the 2009 campaign, the program still had its third best year ever.

Though the University announced in July that Annual Giving only amassed $44.6 million, this year’s effort was still successful, Eisgruber asserted. “It produced that result in the worst economic circumstances we have seen in many decades,” he noted, adding, “Princeton’s volunteers, alumni and friends have remarkably high aspirations, and as a result, they can achieve great things even in those rare years when they do not make the demanding targets they set for themselves.”

Unlike Harvard, Yale and Stanford, Princeton does not guarantee financial aid to families falling within certain income brackets. In 2008, for example, Stanford announced a policy to eliminate tuition for families earning less than $100,000 per year and provided tuition, room and board to families earning less than $60,000.

But the real picture is much more complicated, University financial aid director Robin Moscato explained in an e-mail.

“None of these [universities] has what I’d describe as an ‘iron-clad’ guarantee for a simple correlation between family income and aid amounts,” she said. “In fact, they all base aid on their own complex system of ‘need analysis,’ as does Princeton.” The University’s financial aid website notes that grants may be adjusted for family assets, other than the family home and retirement, that are greater than $100,000.

Moscato added that the average aid amounts given out by Princeton’s peers suggest that the University’s aid package is “certainly one of the best in the nation.” Yale and Stanford give out average grants of $34,311 and $34,500, respectively, and while Harvard’s average grant is $37,200, tuition and fees at Harvard are about $1,800 more than those at Princeton.

“Over half” of Harvard’s students receive financial aid, according to the university’s website, while the Yale Daily News reported that Yale gave out awards to 59.4 percent of its freshmen. Stanford reported that over 75 percent of its students receive some form of aid, whether from that university or from an outside source.

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Though budget cuts pervade nearly every segment of the University, Moscato said that financial aid has been identified as a core priority and that her office would continue to meet the “full need of every admitted student.”

Eisgruber added that cost cutting in other departments allowed the University to focus Annual Giving dollars toward the financial aid program, thereby ensuring that it would not see cuts.

According to data from Steven Gill, budget director and associate provost for finance, the 2005 fiscal year financial aid budget accounted for $59.2 million of the $923.3 million operating budget at that time, or 6.4 percent. Until FY2008, which ended in June 2008, financial aid and total expenditures grew more or less in tandem.

But since the 2008 recession began, financial aid has become more prominent in the University’s budget. According to the FY2010 allocation approved by the Priorities Committee and the trustees, the $104 million financial aid budget makes up 7.8 percent of the $1.34 billion operating budget.