Penn sees rise in aided students

Despite the rise financial need both at Penn and nationwide, the University has been able to maintain its aid packages for current students and increase aid to others.

Bill Schilling, director of Student Financial Services, said the number of students receiving financial aid packages at Penn rose between 8 and 9 percent this year. While he did not have an exact figure for the number of financial aid applications, Schilling said this rise in aided students reflects a similar rise in the number of students who applied.

A survey by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators found that an increasing number of U.S. students were applying and qualifying for financial aid. Among the 500 respondents to the survey, 61 percent reported an increase in aid applications of 10 percent or greater.

Unlike other colleges and universities polled by NASFAA, Schilling explained that Penn will be able to meet the increased demand for aid.

“Our policy is to meet full need for all students,” he said. “It is a strain on the budget, but we are going to find the money.”

The trend of rising financial need has also burdened financial aid offices in terms of processing applications.

One respondent to the survey said 2009 “has been the most difficult and stressful year that I have ever experienced in my 34 years as a financial aid administrator.”

Schilling said the increase in students needing aid is further complicated by the difficulty of measuring a family’s financial status as parents and guardians become unemployed or lose portions of their salaries.

“It’s always nicer to base our decisions on really hard facts,” he said. “But we have a lot of families in flux, so we have to try to make the best guess as to what their situation is going to be.”

Haley Chitty, director of communications for NASFAA, said the added strain of processing more applications may take up a disproportionate amount of the financial aid offices’ time.

“A by-product of having the financial aid office overly burdened with administrative duties is that you have less resources for them to devote to what’s really important, and that’s counseling students,” he said.

Chitty said the rise in financial aid applications may be due to several causes besides the recession, including the record number of students now enrolled in college and recent changes to the aid-eligibility formula.

He added that the Obama Administration has also made an effort to make sure that the unemployed know about financial aid benefits and the ability to go back to college.

At Penn, however, Schilling said the failing economy is the main reason for the increased need for aid.

He added that the growing awareness of the aid availability at Penn and similar institutions may also be a factor in the rise in aid applications.

“It’s hard for us to gauge the impact of the publicity Penn and other institutions have gotten concerning families who would not have considered schools like Penn before because they thought the sticker price is too high,” he said.

This article was edited at 10:06 a.m. on Oct. 21 to reflect the fact that the number of aided students, not the number of financial aid applications, at Penn rose between 8 and 9 percent.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.