History of financial aid

From WikiCU
Revision as of 17:25, 30 April 2013 by Ad2397 (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search

Financial Aid Reform refers to efforts to get Columbia to ante up during the financial aid arms race of 2005-2008, when major universities, spurred in part by Congressional pressure to spend more of their rapidly growing endowments or face a tax, took turns one-upping each other with promises of expanded financial aid packages for students from low-to-middle income families. Columbia was initially slow to respond to moves by other schools, before making a big commitment in March 2008, one week before the collapse of Bear Stearns, the first major incident of the Great Recession.

Timeline of Major Events

  • January 2001: Princeton announces that beginning the following fall, no undergraduate student would be required to take out a loan as part of their financial aid package, and that the loans would be replaced with grants.[1]
  • March 2005: Yale announces that families earning under $45k will not be required to pay towards their childrens' educations, and those making up to $60k would see steeply reduced contribution requirements.
  • March 2006: Stanford announces a program that matches Yale's.
  • March 2006: Penn announces that it will replace student loans with grants for students whose parents earn under $50,000.
  • April 2006: Harvard, because it's Harvard, announces that parents who earn less than 60k a year are off the hook for their childrens' education, one-upping Yale and Stanford.
  • Spring 2006: Financial Aid "Reform" is a major issue among student government types at columbia. The CCSC election, even though the candidates have no statutory authority on it, is a de-facto referendum by students on reforming financial at Columbia. There is a petition campaign for "FAiR".
  • September 2006: Columbia gets off the fence and announces that it, like Penn, will eliminate loans for students from families earning under $50k.
  • April 2007: John Kluge pledges $400 million for financial aid, the largest gift in school history. Columbia doesn't get the money until later, obviously. But they use the pledge to launch a matching contribution campaign to entice other alumni to donate for fin aid as well.
  • December 2007: Because it's a pimp, Harvard triples down, declares that in addition to its previous program, families earning up to $120k need only pay a percentage of their income on a scale sliding up to 10%, and capping contributions at 10% of income for families earning all the way up to $180k, eliminates student loans, and stops counting home equity in calculating family's ability to pay.
  • December 2007: Penn nudges up the cap on its no-loans-for-students program from families earning $50k up to $100k.
  • January 2008: Upset by being beaten to the punch this time around, Yale matches Harvard, raises the top end of its 10% cap to $200,000, eliminates student loans, and also adjusts its formula.
  • February 2008: Brown gets on board. Adopts the pay nothing if you earn under $60k plan, and eliminates student loans for students from families earning under $100k. Stanford also significantly beefs up its program.
  • March 2008: Columbia mans up, eliminating student loans for all, eliminating contributions from families earning under $60k, and reducing the expected contribution from families earning up to $100k.

References

  1. Grants to replace loans for all students on financial aid, Princeton University News, 21 January 2001