Following Ivy Trend, Dartmouth Hikes Aid

Dartmouth College Wednesday became the fourth Ivy and the sixth of America's top schools to overhaul its financial aid system this calendar year, pledging $3.42 million dollars more in grant money for needy students.

Dartmouth's move recycles ideas used in aid reforms at Princeton, Yale, Stanford, MIT and finally Harvard last month. Princeton set off the chain of reforms with a bold move to attract middle income students--breaking up a system of tacit Ivy cooperation that had stood for 30 years.

The result has been a kind of bidding war, with schools saying they feel compelled to increase aid in order to keep up with their peers.

And so yesterday at the Hanover, N.H. school, Maria Laskaris, director of admissions at Dartmouth, sounded like her counterparts upping the ante at competing schools.

"We feel we can't afford to be complacent," Laskaris said. "We want to be competitive."

Dartmouth's aid increase--which averages out to $819 more per undergraduate, far below Harvard's $1,350--concentrates primarily on reducing self-help requirements--student loans and work-study--and replacing those requirements with outright grants.

But unlike Harvard, which simply reduced by $2,000 the self-help requirements of all students on aid, Dartmouth's reforms use a sliding scale reflecting parent income.

For students whose parents make less than $30,000 per year, all self-help will be erased and replaced with a $3,525 grant.

The smallest self-help reduction will be for students whose parents make between $45,000 to $60,000 per year. These students will have their self-help reduced by $1,000.

This aid increase will cost Dartmouth a little less than $2 million when fully implemented. The changes will first apply to students who will be first-years next year and will then be phased in over four years.

Laskaris said this change was aimed at reducing loan debt for graduates, which she said could restrict career choice.

Harvard cited loan burdens on graduates as a motivation for its own aid changes in September.

In addition, outside scholarships won by Dartmouth students will be subtracted from their self-help requirements.Previously half of all outside scholarships hadbeen subtracted from grant aid.

The rest of Dartmouth's reforms aim at reducingfamily contributions--which Laskaris said were"unreasonable" under the system used until thisyear by all Ivy schools.

These changes are less concrete, givingDartmouth financial aid officers leeway to ignoresome of a family's investments and home equity incalculating their ability to pay.

This provision will take effect next fall forall four classes.

Before this year, Ivy schools offered studentsadmitted to several Ivies similar aid awards.

Princeton broke that system in January with amassive aid increase for middle-and lower-incomestudents.

Every school to make changes sincethen--including Harvard--has said a need to staycompetitive played some part in the decision toreform aid policy.

"I'm not surprised," said Harvard Director ofFinancial Aid James S. Miller of the Dartmouthreforms yesterday.

"I'm expecting a fair amount of schools to lookhard at their financial aid packages," he added

The rest of Dartmouth's reforms aim at reducingfamily contributions--which Laskaris said were"unreasonable" under the system used until thisyear by all Ivy schools.

These changes are less concrete, givingDartmouth financial aid officers leeway to ignoresome of a family's investments and home equity incalculating their ability to pay.

This provision will take effect next fall forall four classes.

Before this year, Ivy schools offered studentsadmitted to several Ivies similar aid awards.

Princeton broke that system in January with amassive aid increase for middle-and lower-incomestudents.

Every school to make changes sincethen--including Harvard--has said a need to staycompetitive played some part in the decision toreform aid policy.

"I'm not surprised," said Harvard Director ofFinancial Aid James S. Miller of the Dartmouthreforms yesterday.

"I'm expecting a fair amount of schools to lookhard at their financial aid packages," he added