International students raise a potential gap in Princeton’s financial aid

Good morning! 

Gil Joseph ’25 and Mutemwa Masheke ’23, international students from Haiti and Zambia respectively, call on Princeton to cover the cost of the tax on financial aid above tuition leveled on international students from certain countries.  The 14 percent tax can amount to thousands of dollars. Joseph, who attends Princeton on full financial aid, notes that the bill is mentioned to students but “the University doesn’t explicitly say that the burden of paying the fee is on the student.” As a result, many students are forced to take out loans. To assist international students with these taxes, schools such as Yale has a policy that covers this tax bill for high-aid international students all four years.

Many colleges, including Brown, do not consider financial need in the admissions process for domestic students, but consider how much aid a student will need for international students. Princeton, however, claims to be need blind for all students, including international students. Yet when financial aid was increased in 2022, Gianmarco Miranda Buena ’25 raised doubts about how financial aid guidelines apply to international students. “Last year, if you earned under $65,000, you're supposed to not pay anything. However, I think it varies a lot for international students and that ends up not being true,” he said.
 
“As things stand, Princeton should stop claiming to be loan free. Low-income international students know the truth — it’s not,” Joseph and Masheke write.

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Analysis by Michelle Miao

University announces raise for grad students: Following a two-week union campaign led by Princeton Graduate Students United (PGSU), where over 1,600 graduate workers signed union cards, the University will raise graduate student stipends by at least $5,000. The PGSU Organizing Committee writes, “This is the first of our union wins, but it’s not enough,” and they still need to address the “systemic power imbalance that we can right with a union.”

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• Six professors recognized as 2023 Sloan Research Fellows
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OPINION | Legitimizing Princeton’s Service Landscape

Contributing columnist Jalen Travis ’24 argues that the University’s motto “in the nation’s service and the service of humanity,” belies its consistent lack of encouragement for students seeking to explore service opportunities in their academic work. Travis notes that while the Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship (ProCES) attempts to integrate service into the academic experience, its goals fall far short of its ideals as it remains “underfunded, under-resourced, and understaffed.” Rather, Travis calls on the University to authorize an option that enables students to receive course credit for participating in service work as a key component of its academic curriculum.

“Course credit for service work is not an incentive or bribe to get more students to participate in service, but is a requirement for the University to legitimize the service landscape at Princeton — mainly among the providers of service opportunities,” writes Travis.

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SPORTS | Julia Cunningham joins 1000-point club

During the Tigers' visit to Columbia, senior guard Julia Cunningham sunk a three to earn her 999th, 1000th, and 1001st points, making her the 27th member of the Princeton women’s basketball 1000-point club. Cunningham attributes her success to “hard work when nobody’s watching” and taking “pride in that every single day is important.” Despite her individual success, Cunningham says that her focus is now on winning another conference championship.  

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MORE FROM SPORTS:

• Men’s baseball goes 1–3 in weekend series at Georgia, comes from behind to win final game

At your leisure

• PROSPECT: As the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicks off its fifth Phase with its new movie, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” Head Prospect Editor Emeritus Auhjanae McGee ’23 shares her thoughts on the movie. Although she describes it as “not bad,” she believes it “does suffer from its overbearing status as a ‘Marvel property.’”
• PODCAST: Listen to the latest episode of Daybreak, The Daily Princetonian’s daily news podcast. In today’s episode, hear about Princeton’s 108th Alumni Day, the U.S. ban on TikTok from government devices, nuclear testing in Iran, and a tax for low-income international students.