Princeton’s scholarship time limits need to go

Princeton’s need-based financial aid is exceedingly generous. Tuition is free for students with family annual incomes below $200,000 and those whose families make less than $150,000 a year typically pay nothing to attend. However, one aspect of the University’s financial aid calculation is inconsistent with this generosity: two obscure time limits in the outside scholarship policy.

Receiving an outside scholarship such as National Merit does not mean that you or your family will pay less in tuition, room, and board. Rather, in line with the majority of our peer institutions that meet 100 percent of demonstrated aid, Princeton directly reduces your financial aid grant dollar-for-dollar. The University, however, allows students to be reimbursed for up to $3,500 of their scholarship funds for approved technology purchases.

However, this seemingly benign policy is rendered unnecessarily restrictive by two obscure one-year time limits that are punitive to students who seek to use scholarship funds later on in their Princeton career or receive recurring scholarships.

The first failing is the requirement that scholarships must be redeemed within the academic year in which they are received. The financial aid office explicitly states the tech allowance “is only available for the year in which outside/third-party scholarships were received.” This places many students in an uncomfortable situation. A first-year student may receive a one-time scholarship but have a perfectly functioning laptop for the time-being, for example. This student may want to buy a new model in their junior or senior year, but if they don’t use the funds within their first year, they will not be able to tap into their scholarship for this later purchase.

The problem does not end there. There is a second time limit: students can only receive scholarship reimbursements “during one year of [their] time at Princeton.” This rule completely disregards students who win multi-year, recurring scholarships like the American Chemical Society Scholarship. A student who wins a $1,000 scholarship every year for four years would only be able to redeem a reimbursement once, likely in their first year, depriving them of $3,000 of the scholarship. For each of the following years, they would be ineligible for any further reimbursement. In contrast, a student who wins a one-time $4,000 scholarship (the same nominal value as the first student) could redeem up to $3,500 in technology reimbursements, so long as they use it within the year the funds were received.

The solutions to this are simple, yet long overdue. The University must eliminate these arbitrary time limits. Students should be able to redeem their scholarship benefit at any point during their four years, allowing them the flexibility to buy technology with the money they earned, when they actually need it. Furthermore, the policy should be restructured to honor recurring awards. A student who wins a $1,000 scholarship four years in a row should receive the same benefits as a student who wins a $4,000, one-time scholarship.

You may ask yourself why the University cannot simply let students use their scholarships directly with this extra bureaucratic layer. Based on federal financial aid rules, students redeeming these scholarships could directly create two potential issues: overawarding and a misuse of educational funds. Universities cannot award aid in excess of a student’s demonstrated need or cost of attendance — which is why Princeton reduces your grant if you receive outside scholarships above the $3,500 technology threshold. Secondly, federal rules provide “a reasonable allowance for the rental or upfront purchase of a personal computer.” Locking scholarship fund reimbursements to acceptable technology ensures that the Financial Aid Office complies with these regulations.

Princeton’s spectacular financial aid program can be made just that much better by amending these policies. By making these practical changes, Princeton can move from an overly restrictive outside scholarship system to one that matches the generosity of the rest of its financial aid program.

Support nonprofit student journalism. Donate to the ‘Prince.’ Donate now »

Davis Hobley is a staff Opinion writer for the ‘Prince’ and a member of the Class of 2027 in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. He can be reached at dh2172[at]princeton.edu or his personal Instagram @davis_20.23.