Low-income students at Columbia University will no longer have to pay back loans when they graduate, Columbia officials announced yesterday.
Students whose families earn less than $50,000 a year will only receive grants in their financial aid packages. Penn implemented a similar policy last spring.
"While full tuition and fees only cover about half the real cost of providing this kind of excellent academic experience, we understand that the price remains dauntingly high to most families," Columbia President Lee Bollinger said in a statement.
Penn provides grant-only financial aid to students whose families earn less than $50,000 a year. The policy applies not only to incoming freshmen but current upperclassmen.
The University announced the policy change after Harvard, Yale and Princeton universities reduced or eliminated the burden of tuition on low-income students.
Under the policies of Harvard and Yale, students under the cutoff pay nothing. At Penn and Columbia, they may still have to pay in part.
No Princeton student gets a loan from the school.
Columbia's admissions policy, like that of all Ivies, is need-blind.
