Students from low-income families will receive exclusively grants instead of loans after Tufts announced a new financial aid policy on Dec. 19. The new policy applies to all undergraduates with family incomes under $40,000 a year from the Class of 2011 and thereafter. The policy will not apply to current undergraduates who were admitted before it was put into effect.
The move comes at a time when some comparable universities are eliminating loans for most undergraduates and expanding their financial aid programs in various ways.
Although the step was officially announced last month, the policy had already been employed while admitting the Class of 2011, with more than seven percent of freshmen enrolled qualifying for loan replacements.
Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin said that he hopes the policy will lead to a more diverse applicant pool in the coming years.
"The new policy should encourage low-income students to see Tufts as an affordable option and as a university that supports its commitment to diversity with the resources to make those goals a reality," Coffin told the Daily in an e-mail.
He said the elimination of loans to low-income families is a step toward becoming need-blind, which is a long-term goal of the university's $1.2 billion capital campaign, Beyond Boundaries.
"The loan replacement policy could be seen as part of the overall need-blind admissions policy, as well as the university's continued commitment to expand access to our undergraduate education," Coffin said.
So far in the capital campaign, the university has raised $65 million of its $200 million goal for financial aid for the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering, according to Christine Sanni, the director of advancement communications and donor relations.
"This $65 million is part of the more than $108 million in endowed funds that have been raised for student support across all of the [university's] schools," Sanni said in an e-mail. "Student support encompasses scholarships, loan funds, prize funds, fellowships and miscellaneous funds for student use."
These funds have all been raised since the start of the campaign in July 2002, according to Sanni. In addition, Sanni said that "over $43 million in expendable funds for student support across all of [Tufts'] schools" were raised between July 2002 and December 2007. That money is not sustainable and can only be used in the fiscal year in which it was raised, she said.
While the program had been in place unofficially before December, the university only made it public when officials determined that funds supporting it could be kept up.
"The loan replacement program is sustainable and will not have any [monetary] impact on the need-blind initiative or other financial aid programs and policies," Coffin said.
In addition, he said that the announcement's timing was influenced by changes in financial aid policies at other schools.
"Recent reports that other universities and colleges are adopting this policy reinforce the fact that low-income loan replacement is also a competitive necessity," Coffin said.
The number of students in the lowest income quartile applying to colleges is extremely low, according to Coffin. He cited a recent study that found that those students "comprise just three percent of the undergraduate population at the 146 most selective American colleges." Over 40 percent of undergraduates received financial aid last year, with about $42 million given out.
"Our hope is that this new policy will encourage more low-income students to apply to and enroll at Tufts," Director of Financial Aid Patricia Reilly said in an e-mail. "The number of students who qualify may increase, but we anticipate that any increased costs will be manageable."
The $40,000 annual income cutoff was chosen in order to target only the neediest students.
"Tufts dedicates [financial aid] resources to creating access," Coffin said. "The $40,000 income level ... is not a function of 'affordability,' but rather a reflection of this philosophy of access. Many of these low-income students are first-generation college-bound without the financial safety net enjoyed by their more affluent peers."
As a result, Coffin said that he does not expect the loan-replacement program to be extended to students with annual family incomes above $40,000 soon.
"A broader loan replacement policy is not under consideration," he said. "Personally, I worry that such a policy would redirect important funding from the neediest members of the undergraduate community."
Coffin believes the program will go a long way toward helping low-income students achieve.
"Replacing loans for these students is just and practical, and it helps ensure their social mobility," Coffin said.
In this article, "The new policy applies to all undergraduates with family incomes under $40,000 a year." was erroneously printed and has been replaced with the correct "The new policy applies to all undergraduates with family incomes under $40,000 a year from the Class of 2011 and thereafter. The policy will not apply to current undergraduates who were admitted before it was put into effect."
