Scholarship Aid at Record High

THE rising cost of going to college is bringing about a steady increase in the number of applicants for financial aid — and in the amount of money the College is making available to help needy students get a Dartmouth education.

This development, with its attendant percentages and dollar totals, is described in the annual report of the Office of Financial Aid, released recently by Robert K. Hage '35, the College's director of financial aid.

Scholarship awards this year number 1,060 or 33% of all'undergraduates, compared with 937 or 30% last year and with 826 or 27% three years ago. The total amount of these awards is estimated at $1,875,000 for the current academic year, compared with $1,463,915 last year and $1,138,565 for 1966-67. All forms of aid administered by the Office of Financial Aid — scholarships, loans, and employment — will be close to $2.5 million this year, an increase of approximately $500,000 over the 1968-69 total.

The sizable increase in the allocation of scholarship funds this year (up $411,000) was made partly to offset the $200 increase in College charges and partly to take care of the large increase in aid to entering freshmen. Three hundred and fifty members, or 41%, of the current freshman class are receiving scholarships from the College. This is a substantial increase over the figures for the Class of 1972, in which 281 men (or 34%) received scholarships.

The primary factor in the sharp rise in freshman scholarships this year is the College's program of Equal Opportunity, under which most of the 80 black students in the Class of 1973 are receiving aid.

In the cases of 740 undergraduates on scholarship, loans are being combined with outright scholarship grants. Sixty others are receiving loans without scholarship help, for a grand total of 800 on loans this year, compared with 736 last year. The total amount of loans administered by the College this year is $416,000of which $220,000 comes from the National Defense Student Loan program, $96,000 from the Dartmouth Educational Association, and $100,000 from the College's loan funds. The average loan this year is $520.

A federal cutback in National Defense loan funds has caused a problem for Dartmouth, as for colleges all over the country. This source is providing $64,000 less than last year, and to meet this reduction and the greater need for student loans, the Dartmouth Educational Association has raised its annual sum from $88,000 to $96,000 and the College has made available $100,000 compared with only $17,745 allocated last year.

Beyond these funds administered by the College, students may resort to the federal Guaranteed Loan Program, under which money for educational purposes may be borrowed from banks, at attractive interest rates for families with an adjusted income of less than $15,000. Some scholarship aid as well comes from beyond the College. It is estimated that with NROTC scholarships, National Merit Scholarships, corporation scholarships, state scholarships and loans, and school and community awards, about 50% of the present freshman class has financial aid of some sort.

The College is increasingly on its own, however, in meeting the financial aid problem. Two years ago 42% of the scholarship budget was met from unrestricted funds; last year this grew to 48%, and this year the figure is expected to exceed 50%.