Yale Shifts Its Student-Aid Generosity From Richer to Poorer Students

Yale University has announced it is adjusting its financial-aid policy, one of the most generous in the country, to give more support to students whose families make up to $65,000 a year. The university also plans to reduce its support for some students whose families make $130,000 or more.

Currently, Yale waives the expected family contribution for students whose families make up to $60,000. After those students’ contributions from summer earnings and work-study jobs, the rest of their cost of attendance is covered with grant aid. The university will apply that policy to all students from families making $65,000 or less starting next academic year.

For all other students, Yale expects a contribution from summer earnings and work-study earnings, as well as a parental contribution calculated by the university. Right now, that parental contribution, on average, is about 12 percent of income for families making $130,000 to $200,000 a year. Under the new policy, the average contribution from such families will rise to about 15 percent of income starting with the entering class of 2011, according to the Yale Daily News.

The university plans to charge $52,700 for tuition and room and board in 2011-12, and it expects to spend $117-million on student aid.

The policy change was made for several reasons, including a drop in Yale’s endowment and its desire to help students at the lower end of the income spectrum, Caesar Storlazzi, the university’s director of financial aid, told the News.

Yale’s previous aid change, announced in 2008, came on the heels of a similar announcement from Harvard University. At the time, the wealthiest colleges were being pressured to spend more of their endowments on student aid. A number of other colleges followed suit, packaging loan-free financial aid for lower-, middle-, and in some cases even upper-middle-income students. But as endowments slipped and even the wealthiest colleges have faced financial difficulties, several colleges have scaled back their programs.

Dartmouth College cut back its no-loan financial aid, announcing it would return to packaging loans for students whose families make above $75,000 starting with the fall of 2011. And Williams College changed from a no-loan policy to one where capped loan amounts are packaged for some students, based on family income.