THE COLLEGE
FINANCIAL aid given to Dartmouth undergraduates this year will approximate $960,000, it was reported by the Committee on Scholarships and Loans last month. This compares with $795-137 last year, but any comparison must take into account the fact that larger grants are being made this year because of the $19O increase in tuition and the average increase of $50 in room rent.
The $960,000 total includes $8OO,OOO in outright grants to 768 men or 27.3% of the undergraduate enrollment. Last year 720 undergraduates, or 25.2% received grants. This year's average scholarship award is $1042, compared with $877 last year.
In addition to outright grants, the '957-58 total includes $100,000 loans and $60,000 in earnings at the Dartmouth Dining Association. Financial aid is predominantly in the form of a combination of outright grant and loan, but sixty students are receiving loans only.
The percentage of the freshman class receiving scholarship grants is 30.5% (218 of 715 men), a sharp increase over the 24.5% on aid in last fall's entering class. The highest previous comparable figure was 27.2% of the Class of 1959, two years ago. At least another 5% of the freshmen this year are receiving aid from other sources: five National Merit Scholars, eleven holders of corporation and foundation awards, three beneficiaries of the War Orphans Educational Assistance Act, two beneficiaries of the Korean G. I. Bill, and fifteen freshmen who would have been awarded Dartmouth scholarships but who won Navy ROTC "regular" awards. The average freshman scholarship grant from the College this year is $1117, somewhat larger than the $1042 average for the scholarship group as a whole.
In figuring 1957-58 grants and loans for the Class of 1961, the Committee on Scholarships and Loans used a basic budget of $2340 for freshman year, exclusive of travel. Last year the budget figure used was $2050. In adopting the current figure the Committee added not only the increases in tuition and room rent but also another $50 which seemed called for on the basis of a study made of typical freshman-year costs for scholarship and non-scholarship men in the Class of i960.
The study of first-year expenses, made by the Dean of Freshmen, showed that, exclusive of travel, scholarship men averaged $2090 and non-scholarship men $2215. The addition of higher tuition and room rent would bring the totals this year to approximately $2330 and $2455. The difference of only $125 in the amount averaged by scholarship and non-scholarship freshmen is noteworthy. The difference existed primarily in more expensive rooms and in larger expenditures for recreation and amusements on the part of the non-scholarship men.
Among the '60 men covered in the study, non-scholarship totals ranged from $3188 to $1795 and scholarship totals from $2309 to $1832 for freshman year expenses. Travel costs, not covered in the totals, ranged widely from $420 to $17 for scholarship men and from $667 to $6 for non-scholarship men.
One non-scholarship freshman, either an "operator" or a Spartan, reported that the year's expense for room furnishings was $5.
