Replacing Loans with Grants

Amherst College (Amherst, MA)

Amherst will replace all loans with scholarships in its financial aid packages beginning in the 2008-09 academic year.  The policy will eliminate loans for all students. It will affect incoming students in the Class of 2012 and current students.  In 1999, Amherst eliminated loans for low-income students.  

Bowdoin College (Brunswick, ME)

Beginning in 2008-09, Bowdoin will eliminate loans for all new and current students receiving financial aid, replacing those loans with grants.

Brown University (Providence, RI)

Beginning in 2008-09, Brown will eliminate loans for students whose family incomes are less than $100,000, reduce loans for all students who receive financial aid. (See also Eliminating Parental Contributions)

California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA)

Beginning in 2008-09, Cal Tech will eliminate loans for its neediest undergraduate students.  Domestic students whose total family income is $60,000 or less per year will be offered a financial-aid package that substitutes scholarship gift aid for loans.

Claremont McKenna College (Claremont, CA)

Effective fall 2008, Claremont McKenna is replacing student loans with institutional grants in financial aid packages for all current and entering students. 

Colby College (Waterville, ME)

Beginning in 2008-09, Colby will replace institutional loans with grants in financial-aid packages for all enrolled and new students.

Columbia University (New York, NY)

Beginning in 2008-09, Columbia is ending loans for incoming and current students who are on financial aid, replacing loans with university grants, and expanding aid provided to students from families earning $60,000 to $100,000. (See also Eliminating Tuition)

Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)

Cornell will eliminate need-based loans for all undergraduate students from families with income under $75,000, making it possible for new students to graduate debt-free. The initiative will be implemented over the two years. In the first year, 2008-09, the university will eliminate need-based loans going forward for undergraduate students from families with incomes under $60,000, and cap them annually at $3,000 for students from families with incomes between $60,000 and $120,000. The following year, 2009-10, the program will take full effect by eliminating need-based loans for students from families with incomes up to $75,000, and capping annual loans at $3,000 for students from families with income between $75,000 and $120,000.

Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH)

Dartmouth also will eliminate loans for incoming scholarship recipients.  Currently enrolled students will see their loan expectation cut by 50 percent for each of their remaining years at the college. (See also Eliminating Tuition)

Duke University (Durham, NC)

Beginning in 2008-09, Duke will make it possible for students from families with incomes below $40,000 to graduate debt-free. To help relieve financial pressures on the middle class, Duke will reduce loans for students from families with incomes up to $100,000 and will cap loans for eligible families with incomes above $100,000. (See also Eliminating Parental Contributions)

George Washington University (Washington, DC)

Beginning in 2008-09, incoming freshmen with demonstrated financial need will have their average debt at graduation reduced by nearly 30 percent, from $29,000 to $20,000.

Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)

Beginning in 2008-09, Harvard will eliminate loans in financial aid packages, replace them with grants, and remove home equity in determining a family's assets. Families earning $120,000 to $180,000 a year will be required to pay, on average, no more than 10 percent of their income.

Haverford College (Haverford, PA)

Starting in 2008-09, Haverford will eliminate loans from financial aid packages for all incoming freshmen and reduce the loan burden for continuing students. 

Lafayette College (Easton, PA)

Effective with the 2008-09 academic year, Lafayette is eliminating loans from need-based financial-aid packages awarded to students with family incomes less than $50,000 and whose financial assets are typical of families with this annual income level. Demonstrated need will be filled with aid packages that include grants and a modest work-study award. Beginning in 2009-10, Lafayette also will limit the loan portions of need-based financial-aid package awarded to students from families whose incomes are between $50,000 and $100,000 and whose financial assets are typical of famlies with this annual income level. Loans will be limted to $2,500 per year.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)

Beginning in 2008-09 MIT will waive tuition and replace loans with grants to cover expenses outside tuition for students whose families earn less than $75,000 a year. For families earning less than $100,000, MIT will eliminate home equity in determining their need. Since 2006-07, MIT has matched students' Pell Grants, up to their maximum amount. 

Northwestern University (Evanston, IL)

Beginning in fall 2008, Northwestern will eliminate student loans and replace them with grants for new and returning undergraduate students with the greatest financial need. About 80 percent of the beneficiaries of the no-loan program will come from families making less than $55,000 annually.

Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH)

Beginning in the 2008-09 school year, Oberlin College will eliminate loans for all students who are eligible for federally funded Pell Grants.

Rice University (Houston, TX)

Beginning with the 2008-09 freshmen class, Rice will double the income threshold for its no-loan policy to $60,000. Students with family incomes below $60,000 will not be required to take out loans to pay for college.

Pomona College (Claremont, CA)

Beginning in 2008-09, Pomona College will eliminate loans in financial aid packages and replace those amounts with scholarships.  The change will apply to both current and future students.

Stanford University (Stanford, CA)

Beginning in 2008-09, parents with incomes of less than $60,000 will not be expected to contribute to the costs of room, board, and other expenses. Students will still be expected to contribute their earnings from work during the summer and academic year.  The program also eliminates the need for student loans.  Since 2006-07, families with annual incomes of less than $45,000 have not been expected to contribute to the cost of tuition at Stanford, while the requirements for families earning $45,000 to $65,000 were cut in half. (Students with family incomes of less than $100,000 will no longer pay tuition.)

Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA)

Effective for the 2008-09 school year, Swarthmore will replace all loans with scholarships in financial aid awards for both continuing and new students.  The college has offered loan-free financial aid to its lowest-income students since 2006-07.

University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)

Effective fall 2008, new and current students with calculated family incomes under $100,000 will receive loan-free aid packages, while families above that level will receive a 10-percent reduction in need-based loans.  By fall 2009, all undergraduate students eligible for financial aid will receive loan-free aid packages, regardless of family income level.  In 2006-07, Penn started replacing loans with grants for students of families earning less than $50,000.  In 2005-06, the university reduced the summer savings requirement and increased allowances for incidental expenses for students from low-income backgrounds. 

Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY)

Beginning in fall 2008, Vassar College will eliminate loans from the financial aid packages of students with calculated family incomes of up to $60,000. The college will replace those loans with additional Vassar scholarship grants. The policy will apply to students in all four classes, including current students.

Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC)

Beginning in fall 2008, Wake Forest will reduce the size of loans its neediest students require by giving them more grant aid. The changes benefit freshmen with an annual family income of less than $40,000. Their loans will be capped at $4,000 per year during their college years.

Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO)

Beginning in 2008-09, WUSL will eliminate all loans for its students from families that make less than $60,000 annually. In the place of need-based loans, students will get grants.

Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA)

Beginning in 2008-09, Wellesley will replace loans with grants for students from families earning less than $60,000 a year.

Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT)

Beginning with the first-year class enrolling in 2008-09, students whose total family incomes are $40,000 per year or less will receive an aid package that substitutes grants for any loan obligation.  Beginning with the same class, all other students who receive aid will graduate with a four-year total loan indebtedness reduced by an average of 35 percent. 

Williams College (Williamstown, MA)

Eliminating Parental Contributions

Brown University (Providence, RI)

Beginning in 2008-09, Brown will no longer require a parental contribution from most families with incomes of up to $60,000. (It will eliminate loans for students whose family incomes are less than $100,000, reduce loans for all students who receive financial aid.)

Duke University (Durham, NC)

Beginning in 2008-09, Duke will eliminate parental contributions for families who make less than $60,000 a year. (See also Replacing Loans with Grants)

Stanford University (Stanford, CA)

Beginning in 2008-09, parents with incomes of less than $60,000 will not be expected to contribute to the costs of room, board, and other expenses. Students will still be expected to contribute their earnings from work during the summer and academic year.  The program also eliminates the need for student loans.  Since 2006-07, families with annual incomes of less than $45,000 have not been expected to contribute to the cost of tuition at Stanford, while the requirements for families earning $45,000 to $65,000 were cut in half. (Students with family incomes of less than $100,000 will no longer pay tuition.)

Reducing Tuition

Tuition reductions have been a small but growing trend over the past decade.  In the five past years, more than a dozen have cut their list price.  For a list of tuition cuts at private colleges since 1996, go to www.naicu.edu/tuitioncuts.

The following colleges have announced across-the-board tuition reductions for 2008-09:

Blackburn College (Carlinville, IL)

Cut tuition by 15 percent for 2008-09.

Warner Pacific College (Portland, OR)

Cut tuition by 23 percent for 2008-09. 

These colleges have cut tuition for much of their student bodies for 2008-09:

Capitol College (Laurel, MD)

Capitol College will cut the tuition for business majors starting in the 2008-09 school year by $10,000. Tuition will be frozen at last year's rate for all other students. 

Olivet College (Olivet, MI)

Starting in January 2008, Olivet will cut tuition by nearly 50 percent for incoming freshman, transfer or nontraditional commuter students who graduated from high school--or currently live--in the neighboring towns of Bellevue, Charlotte, Marshall or Olivet. Beginning in January 2009, Olivet will extend the program to 27 additional schools in the region. 

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Matching Public University Tuition

Tuition matches help enhance affordability and minimize the affect of sticker price on a student’s college choice.  As a result, more students have the opportunity to attend the institution that best serves their academic needs.

California Lutheran University (Thousand Oaks, CA)

Beginning in 2008-09, incoming freshmen who are admitted to Cal Lutheran and either the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) or University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) can attend CLU for the cost of attending the public university.  The savings on tuition, room and board likely will amount to more than $60,000 over four years.  The UC Guarantee Scholarship program has no income requirements, and out-of-state and international students are also eligible.  If students maintain a 3.0 grade point average and make satisfactory academic progress, they can renew the scholarship for all four years. 

Offering Free or Discounted Housing

Baker College of Flint (Flint, MI)

Beginning in fall 2008, Baker College of Flint will offer free housing to residence hall students who maintain a 3.5 grade point average or above, a 50 percent discount on housing for students maintaining a 3.0 to 3.49 GPA, and 25 percent discount on housing for students maintaining a 2.7 to 2.99 GPA. 

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Offering Four-Year Graduation Guarantees

These guarantees ensure that students at private colleges and universities graduate in four years.  Students avoid an additional year of tuition payments and enter the workforce sooner than most of their peers at public universities.  Institutions that fail to deliver for students who follow university guidelines and stays on track, will provide the remaining classes at no cost.