MIT to Reduce `Self-Help' in Aid Packages by $1K

Financial aid reform came to Cambridge last Friday, as MIT announced it would eliminate $1,000 in loans and work-study requirements for all students on financial aid.

At the other end of Mass. Ave., Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine said that similar changes would be "clearly, the zone to target" as the University studies its own financial aid system.

MIT's announcement, coupled with a pledge to increase overall scholarships by 14 percent, comes in the wake of a month of financial aid changes at big-name universities.

Since late January, Princeton, Stanford and Yale have also announced increases in financial aid targeted at middle-class students. MIT Director of Financial Aid Stanley G. Hudson said his school's announcement was in part spurred by these changes.

"The fact that Yale, Princeton and Stanford made changes in financial aid was a factor in our evaluation of financial aid changes," Hudson said. "When that stuff hit the news, it entered into our decision-making process."

Hudson said MIT's loans and work-study requirements--collectively known as the "self-help" portion of a financial aid package--had traditionally been larger than at competing schools.

Proposals to reduce these requirements had been on the drawing board for more than a year, Hudson said.

MIT will now expect students receiving financial aid to provide $1,000 less in self-help aid for the next academic year. Some needier students' burdens will be relieved by as much as $3,500.

"Our initial intentions had to do with students who felt our loan levels were too high from the beginning and wouldn't even apply because of the sticker price," Hudson said.

These changes will be paid for in part by a $3.8 million increase in scholarship grants for next year--an increase in out-right aid roughly on the scale of Stanford and Yale's, but less than Princeton's projected $4 to 6 million.

Princeton, Stanford and Yale had announced that they would recalculate a family's ability to pay, lowering the expected family contribution for many middle-class households.

MIT will not make such a change. Hudson said the school has traditionally had a less affluent student body and did not feel the need to aggressively recruit moremiddle-income families.

Rudenstine Reacts

Addressing financial aid at length for thefirst time since Yale and Stanford announced theirchanges, Rudenstine said the University was stillstudying its options.

"I would say in all honesty...I am not surethat any of [the plans] is tailored well for us,"Rudenstine said. "That doesn't mean we can becomplacent--that's why we have a flexible systemfor the spring."

He affirmed Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R.Knowles' pledge to keep Harvard's aid offerscompetitive with Princeton, Stanford, Yale and nowMIT on a student-by-student basis.

"I wouldn't want to stand here and say nothingwill happen," he said. "But if [a drop in studentsinterested in Harvard] happens, it won't be forwant of effort [on our part]."

Looking to the future, Rudenstine said that aUniversity review of its own financial aidpolicies "clearly" should consider self-helpchanges on the model of MIT.

"The most important thing will be to look atthe self-help burden on students," he said,adding, "Some people think our students work toohard."

Rudenstine said he did not expect to lose manyprospective students to schools with reformedfinancial-aid policies this admissions season.

"We could be hurt," Rudenstine said, addingthat it would be hard to pin a rise or fall in thenumber of students who choose Harvard based onfinancial aid changes

Rudenstine Reacts

Addressing financial aid at length for thefirst time since Yale and Stanford announced theirchanges, Rudenstine said the University was stillstudying its options.

"I would say in all honesty...I am not surethat any of [the plans] is tailored well for us,"Rudenstine said. "That doesn't mean we can becomplacent--that's why we have a flexible systemfor the spring."

He affirmed Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R.Knowles' pledge to keep Harvard's aid offerscompetitive with Princeton, Stanford, Yale and nowMIT on a student-by-student basis.

"I wouldn't want to stand here and say nothingwill happen," he said. "But if [a drop in studentsinterested in Harvard] happens, it won't be forwant of effort [on our part]."

Looking to the future, Rudenstine said that aUniversity review of its own financial aidpolicies "clearly" should consider self-helpchanges on the model of MIT.

"The most important thing will be to look atthe self-help burden on students," he said,adding, "Some people think our students work toohard."

Rudenstine said he did not expect to lose manyprospective students to schools with reformedfinancial-aid policies this admissions season.

"We could be hurt," Rudenstine said, addingthat it would be hard to pin a rise or fall in thenumber of students who choose Harvard based onfinancial aid changes