Stanford follows Ivies in fin. aid changes

The Stanford Daily STANFORD, Calif. (U-WIRE) -- Stanford's Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to appropriate an additional $3.8 million to two expansions of the school's financial aid program. Under the new system, students who receive outside scholarships will no longer have to sign any of that money over to Stanford. In addition, the amount of home equity that can be factored into the financial aid calculations will be capped. Both moves are targeted towards helping middle-class families and follow similar actions by Yale and Princeton. Under the current system, students receive only the first $500 of any outside scholarships to use toward their self-help needs, which is the difference between tuition and what the university provides in scholarships. Students pay this remainder themselves. For any amount of money above the first $500 in outside scholarships, half goes to self-help needs and the other half correspondingly reduces the university-given financial aid package. If the self-help portion is reduced by these outside scholarships to $3,500, all further outside scholarships go entirely to the university. As of next year, students can use all of the money they obtain from outside scholarships to cut down their loans and jobs, without impacting their Stanford-provided financial aid. The trustees also voted to cap the amount of home equity that can be used to calculate a student's financial aid package. The amount of equity factored in will be limited to three times the family income. About 70 percent of Stanford undergraduates receive financial aid.