New financial aid policy reflects Yale philosophy

Behind Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead's, BR '68, GRD '72, e-mail greeting students as they groggily checked Webmail on the first day of shopping period; behind the closed doors of numerous Yale Corporation meetings; and behind the Ivy League's financial aid arms race lies a set of deeply rooted philosophies about helping students pay their college bills.

COURTESY YALE ADMISSIONS

The morning of Wed., Sept. 5, in an e-mail addressed to all undergraduate students, Brodhead announced that Yale would increase financial aid by $7.5 million. The move was seemingly aimed at accomplishing two goals: on one hand, catching up to universities like Harvard and Princeton, which announced sweeping reforms last year, and on the other, using Yale's enormous endowment to ease the burden of debt hanging over many students on financial aid. The move could also attract some of the nation's top students.

However, some feel that this is all too little too late. Princeton University implemented a drastic financial aid change almost eight months ago that eliminated all loans, replacing them with grants that need not be repaid. Several months later, in March and April respectively, Harvard University and Dartmouth College followed suit, announcing large increases in financial aid. It took Yale until September to announce similar changes.

What some see as Yale's delayed reaction has caused many students to wonder why it took Yale so long to respond to this seeming trend in financial aid reform. Others wonder why Yale has chosen to continue to give students loans and not to eliminate them altogether, as Princeton did.

Yale intends to use the $7.5 million to provide grants that will reduce students' self-help contribution. More crimson than orange, Yale's new plan has much in common with Harvard's package. Under Harvard's plan, scholarship students receive an additional $2,000 in need-based assistance. Both plans give students the opportunity to use the grant money to reduce either their work-study or loans—but not to abolish them entirely.

According to Brodhead's e-mail, the amount of money a student will be expected to contribute will be reduced by $13,780 over four years. "The student contribution will fall from $7,820 to $5,500 for freshmen, from $8,320 to $5,900 for sophomores, and from $10,420 to $5,900 for juniors and seniors," he wrote. Yale is also raising the minimum student wage for on-campus jobs from $7 to $9.

Yale's more conservative financial aid plan may have something to do with the fact that Yale administrators feel strongly about the value of work-study and loans. Some observers speculate that the delay in Yale's implementation of the new financial aid policy came from the fact that the Administration needed the time to come up with a well thought-out plan.

Brodhead acknowledged that there are problems with work-study. "No one exalts in the fact of it, and we keep things within a reasonable compass," he said. "If [it were exalted], it would be reasonable to assume that everyone would be required to participate in work-study." But he nevertheless thinks that work-study can be reasonably expected of some students, and be manageable and rewarding. He said, "An education is very costly, and it is also very valuable," he said. "The term we like to use is `co-investing.'"

Yet many students remain skeptical about the value of work-study. Rita Fleming, MC '04 said, "I don't think that re-shelving books in CCL, when I could be doing something else—an extracurricular activity or spending more time writing a paper—is that rewarding or valuable."

In a Yale Daily News article, Dean Richard Shaw explained how Princeton's philosophy differed from Yale's. "Higher education is a partnership [between student and school]," he said. "I think [Princeton's] policy is suggesting that they'll just take care of it. It sets a really incredible precedent [that] isn't considered the lay of general education" [YDN, 1/29/01].

Nevertheless, Brodhead does admit that Yale's old policy needed changing and pointed out that he is pleased with the timing of Yale's decision to increase financial aid. "You can't unmake certain commitments. I was very glad to lock this in when we did, because there are times when it may be harder to come up with the money." Many also see Yale's choice to improve aid as being particularly appropriate now, given that recent downturns in the economy promise to make it more difficult for students to come up with the money to pay Yale's hefty tuition.

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