Money Well Spent

Last week, nearby Tufts University put into action a new program whereby graduates who pursue careers in the public and non-profit sectors can receive financial aid to assist in paying off their student debt regardless of their school, program, or major. This initiative aims to eliminate the financial barriers that prevent many students with loans from pursuing these types of careers, and is the first program of its kind. Tufts should be applauded for its ingenuity and leadership, and we hope Harvard will follow suit.

Non-profits are a valuable asset to society, yet a growing discrepancy between starting salaries in the public and private sectors has increasingly drawn college graduates to choose the latter. Many of these students have amassed large amounts of debt during their education and are forced into higher-paying jobs in order to pay off their loans. Indeed, Princeton economists Jesse M. Rothstein ’95 and Cecilia E. Rouse ’86 have found evidence that even at elite universities like Harvard high debt causes students to both avoid public interest jobs and change their academic decisions. While it would be unwise for schools to explicitly push students into certain fields, breaking down the barriers preventing many financially strained individuals from pursuing jobs about which they are truly passionate is unquestionably a good thing.

In many cases, those who are most interested in pursuing careers in the non-profit sector are those who have benefited most from non-profits. Oftentimes these students are also the ones who have accumulated the greatest debt. Even with the growing financial aid packages being offered by schools today, the difference between what the school says a family can afford and what a family has the funds for is still substantial. Many students turn to outside loan agencies and accrue debt that is often unrecognized by the university. Tufts’ program, which will provide $500,000 in loan repayment per year, is particularly valuable because it appears to address both these outside loans as well as school issued loans.

Harvard and other universities with the cash to support this type of program ought to look to Tufts as a model. Harvard is a leader in its financial generosity and has made numerous strides towards making higher education universally affordable, most notably its Harvard Financial Aid Initiative. Harvard also has a track record of facilitating public service careers.

For instance, in 2003 Harvard expanded aid to graduate students in public service fields. Yet that program does not apply across the board as Tufts’ new initiative does, so some students are still faced with a decision of being financially secure in a private sector job after college or fiscally unsure in the non-profit sector. Tufts is striving to completely eliminate this decision from the minds of graduating students, and other universities should follow suit.

That being said, Harvard’s ultimate goal should be to eliminate student loans altogether, as Princeton has. Nevertheless, Tufts’ program is a step in the right direction, especially for universities that may not be able to afford getting rid of loans but which can afford to target those students who stand to benefit the most from loan repayment.