New Policy to Mean More Applicants?

IN JANUARY PRESIDENT Jim Wright announced Dartmouth's new financial aid initiative, to take effect this July. The initiative includes such reforms as free tuition for families whose incomes are less than $75,000 a year, need blind admissions for international students, a four-year loan elimination process, and a leave-term scholarship for financial aid recipients. This, coupled with the fact that the class of high school seniors graduating in 2 009 will be the biggest ever in the United States, means Dartmouth can expect to see quite an increase in applications.

"This initiative is aimed at helping to remove any barriers that students and families might feel existed in terms of the ability of the family to send the child to Dartmouth," says Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Maria Laskaris '84. "My sense is that more students from low- and middleincome families will see Dartmouth as a viable option, and apply."

Advocates of the initiative have lauded the free tuition component, but Laskaris reiterates that Dartmouth is committed to meeting 100 percent of a students demonstrated financial need, regardless of family income. Additionally, now financial need will be met with scholarships rather than loans, which means that beginning with the class of 2012 fewer Dartmouth students will graduate with debt.

Laskaris says that another important aspect of the initiative is the allocation of a leave-term scholarship for financial aid students. Now financial aid recipients are typically required to contribute part of their leave-term earnings toward their financial aid. With the new initiative a financial aid recipient will receive a scholarship for one off-term that could cover expenses during an unpaid internship or travel, two activities commonly pursued by students who do not qualify for financial aid.

Currently Dartmouth spends about $61 million per year on financial aid, with roughly 48 percent of the student body receiving some level of assistance, through either loans or grants. Once the initiative takes full effect Dartmouth will spend an additional $10 million per year to make up the difference, to be allocated through a redistribution of the endowment and funding from the capital campaign, which hit the $1 billion mark in December.