AROUND HIGHER EDUCATION: Princeton calls new fin. aid plan a success

The Daily Princetonian PRINCETON, N.J. (U-WIRE) -- You wouldn't know just by looking, but Princeton University's Class of 2002 is different from other classes that have come to the New Jersey school in recent years. Thanks to a new financial aid policy announced last January, this year's freshman class contains a significantly higher number of students from low- and middle-income families, according to Princeton Provost Jeremiah Ostriker. "It was a huge success," Ostriker said. "We wanted to increase the fraction of students on financial aid in the freshman class, and we did." According to a university statement, the new financial aid program no longer considers home equity while calculating aid packages for families with incomes below $90,000 a year. The policy replaces aid loans with grants for families with incomes below $40,000 a year and increases grants for students with yearly incomes from $40,000 to $57,000. Undergraduate Financial Aid Director Don Betterton said the new policy represents an effort to make the school more affordable to students. "The financial demands on families were becoming too great," he explained. "We didn't want anyone not to come to Princeton just because of financial reasons." Admissions Dean Fred Hargadon said the new policies caused an increased number of students receiving financial aid to attend Princeton. Ostriker cited the university's effort to "couple" the new financial aid policies with intensified recruiting efforts such as increased faculty contact with prospective freshmen. "It worked great. The class size went up, and now we're having a little trouble finding beds for all of them," he said. Betterton said the extra financial aid had increased the total "yield" of financial aid students from 60 to 67 percent, meaning that while 60 percent of the students offered financial aid last year chose to attend Princeton, this year 67 percent of the students receiving the increased financial aid packages chose to attend. Ostriker said additional recruiting and the new financial aid policy led to "significant" increases of between 20 and 30 percent in admission yields for certain applicant types, including under-represented minorities, non-Canadian foreign applicants and the "academically most qualified" students in the applicant pool. According to Betterton, the Class of 2002 has 86 more students on financial aid than the Class of 2001, indicating a rise in total students on financial aid from 38 to 44 percent. He also said this year's freshman class has 30 more students in the "low-income range." Princeton freshman Chris Nodes said the increase in his financial aid package "helped a lot," though he said he did not think it affected his decision to attend Princeton. "I think it's good to get students from lower income brackets. It adds diversity," he said.