Friday, April 9, 2010
No loans! Major colleges pledge aid without debt
Given the increasing costs of education these days I found this article to be a bit refreshing. When you think of Ivy Leagues, you think highly selective, expensive institutions. However, they actually cost less than what most people think. These prestigious schools have huge endowments that they are able to give out hundreds of millions or billions of dollars of aid each year. The best part is that many of these schools limit or remove loans completely from their financial aid packages. Harvard, for example, costs over $50,000 a year, yet the average financial aid package is around $40,000.
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This is great news! My sister is actually in the midst of figuring out where to go to schools and she applied to some Ivy Leagues, which the only turn off was the price tag. This is nice to know, and I will pass it on to my family.
ReplyDeleteI think it is very important that colleges still remain committed to funding students' educations. Education is the perfect tool that is needed to make this country a better place. Though the economy is in trouble now, this shouldn't hurt the future of children.
ReplyDeleteStudents are the perfect targets to go in debt. Private loan companies especially like students because they are skilled workers that will most likely pay back the debt once they graduate and are employed. They also tend to charge higher interest rates that are not fixed. Graduating with a high amount of debt has been shown to deter people from being more productive and purchasing a house. Graduates now are worse off because of the low amount of jobs currently. OWU seems to be pretty good about the amount of “free” money they can offer their students (from the university itself) but it is still in their best interest to accept a lot of kids who are rich and can pay all or a large portion of the tuition.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, with the policy - more students will be able to afford to go to college. There are many students that are worthy of going to a prestigious academic school but might be held back because of the price. This will give students more opportunities and incentives to go to college.
ReplyDeleteI think because Ivy League school have been so selective and are so prestigious, they can afford to hand out such great financial aid packages. It will be interesting to see how the recession will affect the quantity and volume of these donations and how financial aid packages will be hurt subsequently. Ivy League schools certainly have the advantage because of the distinguished alumni they produce and will continue to maintain the high levels of giving because of their desire to remain at the top.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good plan for these schools because their students will remember this, and down the line could donate a lot more money then the school gave them in the first place. This can almost be looked at as an investment decision by the schools, and with the massive endowments it seems to be working.
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