Why Elite Colleges Have Sweetened Their Student-Aid Packages

Autor/in	Gutmann, Amy
Titel	Why Elite Colleges Have Sweetened Their Student-Aid Packages
Quelle	In: Chronicle of Higher Education, 54 (2008) 37, (1 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0009-5982
Schlagwörter	Scholarships; Student Financial Aid; Private Colleges; Access to Education; Middle Class; Educational Policy; Low Income Groups; Endowment Funds; Student Diversity; Socioeconomic Status; Excellence in Education; Cultural Pluralism; Democratic Values + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Scholarship; Stipendium; Finanzielle Beihilfe; Studienfinanzierung; Studienförderung; Privathochschule; Education; Access; Bildung; Zugang; Bildungszugang; Mittelschicht; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Stiftungsvermögen; Socio-economic status; Sozioökonomischer Status; Lernerfolg; Kulturpluralismus
Abstract	Selective colleges are undergoing intense scrutiny these days when it comes to student aid. The decisions of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, and other private institutions to expand their aid packages for students from less-affluent families have drawn both high praise and heavy fire: high praise for making themselves more affordable to students from all economic backgrounds, and heavy fire for using aid to compete unfairly for middle-income students at the expense of more needy students and for widening the gap between the "have" and "have not" institutions. Meanwhile, some in Congress are pressuring many institutions to spend more endowment money on student aid. Thanks to the new aid policies, thousands of students from low- and middle-income families will not have to pay tuition or take on debt to attend not only Penn and Harvard, but also other private institutions, including Amherst College, Brown University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Stanford University, Swarthmore College, Wellesley College, Williams College, and Yale University. To make themselves fully affordable, institutions are increasing their student-aid budgets, usually by spending more from their endowments and raising more money for aid from donors. In this article, the author enumerates three basic reasons why institutions are willing to absorb so much of the cost of educating more students who could not otherwise afford to attend one: (1) They recognize that socioeconomic diversity and excellence go hand in hand toward educating great future leaders for a diverse world; (2) Higher education will optimally advance democratic values when, and only when, all capable and aspiring students have access to an education that enables them to realize their full potential as citizens and leaders; and (3) For today's generation of presidents and trustees, the commitment to aid based on need is a sacred trust. In their ranks are many people who would not have achieved high stations and successes but for the opportunity to attend college on scholarships (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Chronicle of Higher Education. 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037. Tel: 800-728-2803; e-mail: circulation@chronicle.com; Web site: http://chronicle.com/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10