Princeton Unfazed, Yale Fears Bidding War

At two of Harvard's peer schools yesterday, reactions to the University's massive financial aid increase fell at both ends of the spectrum--from near-smugness at Princeton to frank concern at Yale--and their difference may help illuminate how a bidding war for top students would affect the Ivy League's three top schools.

The financial aid revolution began with a jolt at Princeton last January, as officials announced a $4 to 6 million aid increase aimed at attracting students from middle-class families. Now, the number of students on aid is back up, and officials last week declared their policy change a success.

Thomas Wright, Princeton vice president and university secretary, reacted coolly yesterday to Harvard's changes-which allocated just slightly more per undergraduate than Princeton's $1,300.

"It's good news," Wright said. "Princeton took the step it did in an effort to increase the access to institutions for a wide range of families. We are pleased if [other institutions] are able to follow the same course."

Wright said it was still too early to tell if Princeton would consider another aid increase in order to keep pace.

The story was drastically different at Yale, where Director of Financial Aid Donald McM. Routh said it was "back to the drawing board." He said he would recommend Yale keep up with Harvard's changes "dollar for dollar."

"In a marketplace situation, where we're competing one-on-one [with Harvard], then the fact that first of all, it's Harvard, and second of all, if you go to Harvard you have to borrow $2,000 less than Yale, that begins to bind [students]," Routh said. "[Harvard] certainly upped the ante."

But Routh was not optimistic that Yale would be able to afford increases beyond the one it made in the spring, which allocated only half as much an increase per student as Harvard or Princeton.

The difference between the attitudes of these two schools can be explained by simple economics. Princeton, with the nation's largest endowment per student, can afford to lead the way into increased generosity. It can also--to some extent--afford to vie with Harvard in the bidding war Routh said he sees coming in the Ivy League. Yale, with a far smaller endowment per student than either school, cannot.

And so, according to Routh, keeping pace with Harvard is "as much a budgetary question as a philosophical one." Either way, it's a tough question to answer in New Haven.