John Chock (Stanford Daily)(U-WIRE) STANFORD, Calif. – In what the University called its largest financial aid increase in history, Stanford announced that it will significantly reduce the expected contributions of lower- and middle-income families to tuition and other educational expenses for students enrolled in the 2008-2009 academic year.
Parents with incomes of less than $100,000 will no longer be expected to pay tuition under the new plan, while those with incomes of less than $60,000 will not be expected to contribute to tuition or the costs of room, board and other educational expenses.
University officials expect the average parent contribution for students receiving financial aid to decrease by 16 percent.
In addition to lowering expectations for parents, the changes will also lessen the burden of expected contributions from students who are on financial aid. Students will no longer be required to apply for loans as part of their financial aid packages.
“This is a significant change in the way we do business in the Financial Aid Office,” said Director of Financial Aid Karen Cooper.
According to a press release issued by the University, the changes will bring Stanford’s undergraduate financial aid program to more than $114 million
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from $76 million in 2007-2008
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which makes it one of the largest programs of its kind in the nation. According to a University Web site describing enhancements to the financial aid policy, the need-based scholarship budget has increased by $20.7 million to a total budget of $97.2 million.
Cooper said part of the motivation for the changes was to send a clear message to low- and middle-income families that Stanford is affordable, especially to those students who do not consider applying to Stanford for financial reasons.
“By devoting more resources to financial aid, we seek to underscore what has long been the case
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that no high-school senior should rule out applying to Stanford because of cost,” President John Hennessy said in a written statement. “We understand how families face serious financial pressures, and we are doing all we can to assist them.”
The University also announced total undergraduate tuition and fees would increase by 3.5 percent to $47,212, compared to $45,608 for the current academic year.
“Although Stanford’s tuition has gone up over the past five years, thanks to our increasingly generous financial aid program, families with incomes less than $150,000 will find a Stanford education much more affordable than it was five years ago,” University Provost John Etchemendy Ph.D. ’82 said in a statement. “For most of these students, attending Stanford will cost less than most private and many public universities.”
Cooper said families who are on financial aid are generally protected from tuition increases because the expected parent contribution remains relatively the same from year to year for most students. Any increase in tuition is usually matched by an increase in scholarship funds made available to students on financial aid, Cooper added.
The University’s announcement comes more than two months after Harvard University declared it would significantly increase financial aid granted to middle-class and upper-middle-class students. Several schools, including Yale and Dartmouth, made similar announcements amid growing concerns that tuition at some of the nation’s top universities is becoming too expensive for families to afford.
Hennessy noted that the changes mark the third consecutive year Stanford has allocated more money to financial aid for lower- and middle-income families.
“This is a track we have been on,” Cooper said. “Certainly we were aware of other announcements happening and cognizant of the fact that we need to compete for these students. But a big driver for the decisions that were made was really what’s right for Stanford families.”
The changes have been made possible partly through the success of the University’s fundraising campaigns and its decision last year to increase its endowment payout from 5.0 to 5.5 percent, according to Cooper. The University plans to double the financial aid goal of its current fundraising campaign, the Stanford Challenge, to $200 million.
Cooper said the new changes make it possible for some students to receive aid even if they had not previously qualified. She anticipates seeing more applications come in from students who are on the margin of qualifying for aid.
“We want to reach out to those families who feel like it’s difficult,” Cooper said. “If we said ‘no’ in the past, this might be the year to try again.”
Three out of every four Stanford undergraduates currently receive some form of financial aid, according to the University.
Cooper said she has high hopes for the changes to Stanford’s aid program.
“I think we’re going to have one of the most generous financial aid programs in the country,” Cooper said.