Princeton improves aid - can Yale keep up?

Despite the words on a popular Yale t-shirt, Princeton matters—if not in the game of football, then certainly in the game of admissions. On Sun., Jan. 28, officials at Princeton sent a jolt through the Ivy League by announcing sweeping changes in the school's financial aid policies. Under its new guidelines, Princeton will give scholarships to all students who demonstrate financial need. An unprecedented move, this decision ensures that Princeton students will not have to take out any loans in order to meet tuition costs. For the first time, financing an elite education will not necessarily put lower and middle class families in debt.

HYURA CHOI/YH

While good news for prospective Tigers, the new financial packages at Princeton pose a threat to competing institutions. In a league where applicants with perfect SAT scores often fail to gain admission, Ivies don't want to lose students over money. For this reason, aid policies are relatively consistent among elite schools—when one school becomes more affordable, the others must make themselves equally affordable to stay competitive.

This time however, Princeton may have trumped its peers. When asked if the Princeton announcement was unexpected, Predsident Richard Levin, GRD '74, laughed and replied, "What can I say? We were certainly surprised." Where something resembling a gentlemen's agreement previously kept financial aid relatively uniform within the Ivies, Princeton seems to have reneged, provoking consternation at rival institutions.

Princeton's latest move actually consists of several new policies, each representing a radical policy innovation by itself. In addition to removing burdensome loans for financial aid students, Princeton will provide free health plans, reduce what students contribute from their own savings, and lower the summer earnings expectation.

For many Yale students like Jessie Mangual, MC '02, these are crucial considerations when financing higher education. "Yale's financial aid program has made it possible for me to attend school here, but it is still an intense struggle," Mangual said. "The most difficult part is the summer contribution, which is very difficult to waive, and the loans are so large that I still haven't quite figured out how I am going to pay them."

Mangual was admitted to Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, but in 1998 there was barely a distinction among her financial aid packages. This equilibrium will likely not exist in 2002. Yale is simply not ready to meet Princeton's reforms. "It is unlikely to make a move this year," Levin said. "[We] need to look at it from every angle. There's nothing concrete yet."

Although there will be no definite response from Yale Administrators in the near future, students are already voicing opinions on how the University should proceed. Campus publications have been filled with pleas to not leave poorer Yalies "in the dust," and e-mail petitions are circulating that call for Yale to match—immediately—the new guidelines at Princeton. Fans of Bulldog sports are concerned that Yale will lose top recruits to the lure of Princeton's "free ride." In general, there is substantial fear that campus diversity will be negatively impacted if Yale allows Princeton to reign as the king of financial aid.

Nevertheless, there are others who wonder if Yale should necessarily follow the Princeton path. Levin himself admitted that he is "impressed that students around campus say that [eliminating loans] is not automatically the right way to go." Matthew Vogel, MC '02, is emblematic of such hesitation. "Given the recent surge in the [University's] endowment, Yale could lower the cost of tutition for everybody, not just students on financial aid," he said. Indeed, some believe that the more reasonable remedy for financial gaps is to bring tuition costs down to the means of lower and middle class students, rather than vice versa.

In any case, Levin sees little reason to be hasty. While the Princeton changes greatly surprised him, he does not think these policies will make it difficult for admitted students to choose Yale over Princeton. "Overlap between Princeton and Yale isn't that large," Levin said, "especially with the early decision numbers."

For now, it seems that the University is confident that students who truly want to attend Yale, or at least students of the kind that the school prefers to enroll, will either apply early or will not let financial aid discrepencies dissuade them. As Mangual said, "Even if Princeton had offered me a more attractive package, even as much as a full scholarship, I am pretty positive that I would have chosen Yale."

Personal preferences are clearly a large part of the selection process; students are inherently attracted to some schools over others. But it remains to be seen how powerful the force of self-selection will remain in light of significant financial imperatives. Financial aid students who attend Princeton stand to save upwards of $20,000. It's one thing to overlook a difference of hundreds of dollars so that one's Yale-blue blood may run free, but a difference of tens of thousands is another matter. In future years, some would-be Yalies may not be able to see beyond the green—and will end up in the orange and black.

In the coming month, students at Yale will continue to react to the implications of Princeton's reforms, and some will demand that Yale meet these reforms in full. If University officials decide against changes to financial aid, it seems that they will at least have to offer a precise justification for continuing the status quo.

Graphic by Hyura Choi.

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