Private Colleges Announce Their Cost-Cutting Initiatives For The 2009-10 Academic Year

February 17, 2009 · Filed Under Money Matters, Q & A, Services 

cutdollarbillIn light of the current economic downturn, private colleges and universities are taking substantial steps to stay affordable to students and their families. The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities surveyed over 1,000 of their private college members to find out which schools are changing their financial aid policies in order to keep their costs as low as possible. The following are the results of the survey:

  • Agnes Scott College (Atlanta/Decatur, GA) – ASC’s 2009-10 price increase for tuition, mandatory fees, and room and board will be lowered to only 2.69 percent. In addition, ASC will guarantee $64,200 in merit aid over four years to students eligible for a Georgia HOPE scholarship.
  • Amherst College (Amherst, MA) – Amherst will replace all loans with scholarships in its financial aid packages.
  • Augustana College (Rock Island, IL) – Augustana’s tuition increase of 3.9% for 2009-10 will be its smallest tuition increase in 25 years.
  • Baker College of Flint (Flint, MI) – Baker College of Flint will offer free housing to residence hall students who maintain a 3.5 grade point average or above, a 50 percent discount on housing for students maintaining a 3.0 to 3.49 GPA, and 25 percent discount on housing for students maintaining a 2.7 to 2.99 GPA.
  • Benedictine University (Lisle, IL) – Benedictine will freeze tuition at its current 2008-09 level through Spring 2010 for traditional undergraduate students already attending the university, and have guaranteed that the 2009-10 freshman class will not see a tuition increase through Spring 2011.
  • Blackburn College (Carlinville, IL) – Blackburn cut tuition by 15 percent for 2009-10.
  • Boston University (Boston, MA) – Beginning in fall 2009, BU will replace need-based loans with grants for Boston residents who graduate from Boston public schools and are admitted to the university.
  • Bowdoin College (Brunswick, ME) – Bowdoin will eliminate loans for all new and current students receiving financial aid, replacing those loans with grants.
  • Brown University (Providence, RI) – Brown will eliminate loans for students whose family incomes are less than $100,000, and reduce the amount of loans for all students who receive financial aid.
  • California Lutheran University (Thousand Oaks, CA) – CLU will now allow incoming students who are also admitted to either University of California, Los Angeles, or University of California, Santa Barbara, to attend CLU for the cost of attending the public university.
  • California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA) – Cal Tech will eliminate loans for its neediest undergraduate students. Students whose total family income is $60,000 or less per year will be offered a financial-aid package that substitutes scholarship gift aid for loans.
  • Capitol College (Laurel, MD) – Capitol College will cut the tuition for business majors starting in the 2008-09 school year by $10,000. Tuition will be frozen at last year’s rate for all other students.
  • Claremont McKenna College (Claremont, CA) – Claremont McKenna is replacing student loans with institutional grants in financial aid packages for all current and entering students.
  • Colby College (Waterville, ME) – Colby will replace institutional loans with grants in financial-aid packages for all enrolled and new students.
  • College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA) – Holy Cross will now offer free tuition to city residents whose families earn less than $50,000 a year.
  • Columbia University (New York, NY) – Columbia announced that all undergraduates from families with incomes as high as $60,000 a year will no longer have to pay for tuition, room and board, and other fees.
  • Connecticut College (New London, CT) – Connecticut College will reduce loans and increase grants for newly enrolled freshmen who are from families with incomes below $75,000. For families with incomes $50,000 or less, 100 percent of the loans will be replaced with grants. For families with incomes between $50,000 and $75,000, 50% of the loans will be replaced with grants.
  • Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) – Cornell is eliminating student loans for families with incomes below $60,000. They are also capping student loans at $3,000 annually for families with incomes between $60,000 and $120,000; and $7,500 in annual student loans for families with annual incomes above $120,000.
  • Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH) – Students entering Dartmouth from families with incomes of $75,000 or less will receive free tuition.
  • Duke University (Durham, NC) – Duke will make it possible for students from families with incomes below $40,000 to graduate debt-free. Duke will also reduce loans for students with family incomes up to $100,000, and will cap the amount of loans for families with incomes above $100,000.
  • Fairfield University (Fairfield, CT) – Fairfield will provide full tuition scholarships to Bridgeport, CT, high school students whose annual family income is under $50,000.
  • George Washington University (Washington, DC) –Incoming freshmen will have their average debt at graduation reduced by nearly 30 percent, from $29,000 to $20,000.
  • Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) – Beginning in 2008-09, Harvard will eliminate loans in financial aid packages, replace them with grants, and remove home equity in determining a family’s assets. Families earning $120,000 to $180,000 a year will be required to pay, on average, no more than 10 percent of their income.
  • Haverford College (Haverford, PA) – Starting in 2008-09, Haverford will eliminate loans from financial aid packages for all incoming freshmen and reduce the loan burden for continuing students.
  • Johnson C. Smith University (Charlotte, NC) – JCSU froze tuition for 2009-10
  • Juniata College (Huntingdon, PA) – Starting in 2008-09, Juniata guarantees that incoming students will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in four years.
  • Lafayette College (Easton, PA) – Lafayette is eliminating loans from need-based financial-aid packages awarded to students with family incomes less than $50,000 and replacing them with grants and a modest work-study award. Lafayette also will limit the amount of loans for families whose incomes are between $50,000 and $100,000.
  • Lawrence Technological Universi ty (Southfield, MI) – Lawrence Tech has announced 400 newly created “Recovery Grants” that will provide 50 percent of tuition for eligible displaced workers or their dependent children.
  • Lincoln Memorial University (Harrogate, TN) – LMU is freezing tuition and rooms for 2009-10 at their current 2008-09 rates.
  • Loras College (Dubuque, IA) – Loras announced its 2009-10 tuition increase of 3.5 percent increase will be the college’s lowest tuition increase in six years.
  • Manchester College (North Manchester, IN) – Beginning in 2009-10, Manchester will offer its “Triple Guarantee”: (1) grant aid will cover the full cost of tuition for academically strong low-income students who live in Indiana, and guaranteed financial aid for all full-time students; (2) guaranteed graduation within four years for all full-time students, or pay no tuition for credits needed to graduate in five years; and (3) a guaranteed job or enrollment in graduate school within six months of graduation, or return for a full year tuition-free.
  • Mercy College (Toledo, OH) – Mercy froze tuition for 2009-10
  • Merrimack College (North Andover, MA) – For 2009-10, Merrimack is freezing tuition, room, and board at its current 2008-09 level for all students.
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) – MIT will waive tuition and replace loans with grants for all students whose families earn less than $75,000 a year. For families earning less than $100,000, MIT will eliminate home equity in determining their need.
  • Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) – Northwestern will eliminate student loans and replace them with grants for new and returning undergraduate students from families making less than $55,000 annually.
  • Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH) – Oberlin College will eliminate loans for all students who are eligible for federally funded Pell Grants.
  • Olivet College (Olivet, MI) – In 2008, Olivet cut tuition by nearly 50 percent for incoming freshman, transfer or nontraditional commuter students who graduated from high school–or currently live–in the neighboring towns of Bellevue, Charlotte, Marshall or Olivet. Beginning in January 2009, Olivet will extend the program to 27 additional schools in the region.
  • Pomona College (Claremont, CA) – Pomona College will eliminate loans in financial aid packages for both current and future students and replace those amounts with scholarships.
  • Rice University (Houston, TX) – For the 2009-2010 freshman class, Rice’s no-loan policy will be extended to students from families whose annual incomes are $80,000 or less – up from the current threshold of $60,000. The university will also lower the cap on loans in financial-aid packages for need-eligible incoming freshmen to $10,000 for their four undergraduate years – down from the limit of up to $14,500 for freshmen who entered in fall 2008.
  • Sacred Heart University (Fairfield, CT) – Sacred Heart will provide a full tuition scholarship to any incoming first-time undergraduate student who is a graduate of a Fairfield County, CT, high school, and whose family earns less than $50,000 a year.
  • Soka University (Aliso Viejo, CA) – All students admitted to the bachelor’s in liberal arts program at Soka whose annual family income is $60,000 or less will receive free tuition.
  • Southern Virginia University (Buena Vista, VA) – SVU froze tuition for 2009-10
  • Stanford University (Stanford, CA) – All students with family incomes of less than $100,000 will no longer pay tuition.
  • St. John’s University (New York, NY) — St. John’s announced a plan to provide a 50-percent tuition discount on graduate programs for alumni who were laid off in the economic downturn of the past six months and who enroll in the spring or summer of 2009.
  • Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA) –Swarthmore will replace all loans with scholarships in financial aid awards for both continuing and new students.
  • University of Evansville (Evansville, IN) — Evansville has announced a 3.5 percent increase in tuition and for the 2009-10 academic year; its lowest percentage increase in 12 years.
  • University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) – All undergraduate students eligible for financial aid will receive loan-free aid packages, regardless of family income level.
  • Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) – Vanderbilt will replace student loans with institutional grants and scholarships in financial aid packages for incoming and current undergraduate students. In addition, all seniors slated to graduate in May 2009 will have their need-based loans for the spring 2009 semester replaced with Vanderbilt grant/scholarship assistance.
  • Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY) – Vassar will eliminate loans from the financial aid packages of students with family incomes of up to $60,000. The college will replace those loans with additional Vassar scholarship grants. The policy will apply to students in all four classes, including current students.
  • Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC) – Wake Forest will reduce the size of loans to its neediest students and give them more grant aid. Families with annual income of less than $40,000 will have their loans capped at $4,000 per year during their college years.
  • Warner Pacific College (Portland, OR) – Warner cut tuition by 23 percent.
  • Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO) – WUSL will eliminate all loans for its students from families that make less than $60,000 annually and replace them with grants.
  • Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA) – Wellesley will replace loans with grants for students from families earning less than $60,000 a year.
  • Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT) – Beginning with the first-year class enrolling in 2008-09, students whose total family incomes are $40,000 per year or less will receive an aid package that substitutes grants for any loan obligation.
  • Williams College (Williamstown, MA) – Williams will eliminate loans from all financial aid packages and replace them with grants.
  • Yale University (New Haven, CT) – Beginning in 2008-09, families with incomes of less than $60,000 will not be required to pay anything toward the cost of a student’s education. Families with incomes of $60,000 to $120,000 will contribute from one to 10 percent of the student’s bill. The policy will apply to all students returning to campus in the fall as well as entering freshmen. Yale also announced that it will hold increases in 2009-2010 tuition and room and board charges to 2.2 percent.

The author of this newsletter is Chuck Reilly.

If you have any questions about the information contained in this newsletter, or any questions about college funding in general, please contact our office.

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