BranfordCollege, YaleUniversity, Photo Courtesy: Fishville
Fishville’s Notes: The rumor has its value as Yale is indeed going to cut the financial aids for more affluent families with annual incomes between $130,000 and $200,000. But it is not that much though as the report indicating a few thousands more for these relatively wealthier families. Yale increased its financial aid budget by 8-9% and will use the larger budget to increase the financial aids to underprivileged families in which you are not required to pay anything (including room and board) if your family income is below $65,000. Yale asks contribution of about 1-10% of your salary if your family income is in the range of $65,000 to $130,000. The whole picture shows that Yale is still quite generous virtually for everyone.
Yale redistributes financial aid
By Emily Wanger, Staff Reporter, Yale Daily News, February 18, 2011
Beginning with the class of 2015, low-income families will receive more financial aid, while those on the higher end of the income spectrum will receive less.
Families that earn between $130,000 and $200,000 annually will pay a greater share of tuition than they have in the past, Director of Financial Aid Caesar Storlazzi said, with the “parent contribution” rising from an average of 12 percent of annual income to 15 percent. This change accompanies the University’s decision to waive parent contributions for families that make less than $65,000 each year — a more generous cutoff than the previous $60,000 figure announced in December.
“Looking at the total picture, there are three big factors at play here: the drop in endowment, our desire to help more folks on the lower end, and our belief that making moderate adjustments on the higher end will still enable complete economic diversity,” Storlazzi said.
Even with the new formula, Storlazzi said, Yale is ahead of many other universities which charge 17 percent of annual income for this group of families as a parent contribution. The changes to the parent contribution on the upper and lower ends of the income scale will amount to an estimated $9 million increase in the overall financial aid budget and will help preserve financial aid during a time of economic strain, he said.
Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of two websites focused on college financial aid (FinAid.org and Fastweb.com), said Yale’s decision to shift funds from wealthier students to less wealthy students is part of a greater trend in higher education. Still, he said, Yale’s changes are too small to make a major difference in the University’s financial aid program because “we’re talking a few thousand dollars.”
“It’s a tweaking of policy,” he said.
Yale joins Dartmouth and Williams colleges in reducing financial aid for wealthier families in recent years, according to FinAid.com. Dartmouth announced last February that it would reintroduce loans for students from families earning more than $75,000 who would enter the college in fall 2011. Approximately a week before Dartmouth changed its policies, Williams announced it would reintroduce loans for some students receiving financial aid in 2011-’12, though not for “low-income students.”
Despite the increase in the overall financial aid budget, two Yale students interviewed said the University must do more to make a Yale education affordable for students from all backgrounds.
Kenneth Reveiz ’12, a member of the Undergraduate Organizing Committee, said the group believes that the student contribution toward financial aid, which increased by $400 this year, creates a “two-class system” among students. The changes for the class of 2015, he said, do nothing to rectify the issue.
Though Ellen Ray ’12, another Undergraduate Organizing Committee member, said she is not concerned by the content of the new rules, she said more student input — aside from that of the Yale College Council — is needed before the University changes its financial aid policies again.
“I think it would be great if there could be more transparency when administrators deliberate,” Ray said. “A lot of the time, these changes come as orders from on high.”
Almost 3,100 families currently receive financial aid.
Yale “could consider” cutting aid to wealthier families
Posted by Carole Bass '83, '97MSL on February 4, 2011, Yale Alumni Magazine.
Yale “could consider” reducing financial aid to plug its continuing budget gap, the university’s aid director tells the Yale Daily News.
In an email last month, President Rick Levin ’74PhD and Provost Peter Salovey ’86PhD warned that the 2011-12 budget faces a $68 million shortfall. And even as the university announced in December that it will increase financial aid by about 8 percent, to $117 million, it also quietly noted that it will “make modest adjustments in its need analysis formula for families with over $130,000 in annual income.”
Those modest adjustments apparently will mean less aid for the $130,000-plus families. And that’s as it should be, according to a Smith College economist quoted in the Yale Daily.
“A good portion of financial aid goes to what we normally in America call wealthy people, but at Yale are closer to the middle because it’s such an affluent student population,” says the economist, Roger Kaufman.
Asked whether Yale might make cuts to close the budget deficit, Director of Financial Aid Caesar Storlazzi told the News: “We look at all of these things all the time, to decide when the time is right. It’s not something we’re afraid of, not something we’re avoiding.”
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