With recent announcements by schools like Harvard and Yale of plans to expand their financial aid benefits to include students of middle- and upper-income levels, Boston College students have been left wondering whether BC administrators will follow suit and commit more of BC's endowment to help defray the cost of tuition.
"BC is actually ahead of the curve," said Robert Lay, dean of enrollment management. "In the last six to seven years, we've phased in a new plan to meet the full financial need of our students. We're one of the few institutions to have a need-blind admissions policy."
BC grants financial aid to 100 percent of students with demonstrated financial needs. Two-thirds of BC students are on some kind of financial assistance plan, either through loans or work-study. The typical financial aid package includes a grant of $21,500 annually, and $16,700 in loans for the four years. The average loan debt of students in the 2007 graduating class was $20,000 from either private loans or loans through BC. Bernie Pekala, the director of student financial strategies in the Enrollment Management Dean's Office, compared this to the average loan debt of George Washington University students, at $27,000 over four years.
To determine the amount of a student's financial aid assistance, BC looks at each family's financial situation in its entirety, including asset worth and investments that may factor into the affordability.
Harvard University announced a plan at the end of last year to provide free tuition for students whose families earn less than $60,000 per year. Families making between $120,000 and $180,000 will pay 10 percent of their income - providing substantial relief for middle- and upper-income families. Yale University announced a similar plan.
Christine Doonan, A&S '11, recognizes the benefits of such a plan on a personal level. "It would be a positive change [if BC were to expand its financial aid] because it's a huge financial burden to send three kids to private colleges," she said.
Doonan's older brother, Patrick Doonan, is a junior at Notre Dame and her younger brother, Gregory Doonan, is a junior at Peabody High School in Peabody, Mass.
Dartmouth College's financial aid expansion plan calls for free tuition for families earning less than $75,000 per year and a shift away from student loans to scholarships.
The University of Pennsylvania's plan eliminates student loans for all financial aid students in two years. Duke University's plan will see loans capped at $5,000 per year for students from families with annual incomes above $100,000.
There's no cutoff for need at BC. "What's so groundbreaking about the plans from schools like Harvard and Yale is that they provide some level of tuition relief to middle- and upper-income families. Most of these families at BC would expect to pay most of the tuition costs themselves," Lay said. "Other schools are creating competition in giving discounts to these middle- and upper-income families. BC would have to raise its tuition to offer these families discounts, and that's not something BC would be willing to do."
With the implementation of the Master Plan looming, BC plans to launch a capital campaign to fund both the Campus Plan and the Strategic Plan.
Financial aid is one of the academic goals of the Strategic Plan. "We hope to make more money in the capital campaign to put toward financial aid," Lay said.
President Bush's 2009 Budget Request for the Department of Education includes plans to help defray the cost of college tuition for students.
In 2009, the Department of Education plans to administer almost $95 billion in new grants, loans, and work-study assistance for 11 million students.
In September 2007, the College Cost Reduction and Access Act increased student aid funding, including raising the maximum Pell Grant to $5,400 by the 2012-2013 award year.
The work-study program will also stand to benefit. The program provides grants to universities to pay up to 75 percent of a working student's wages, with the school paying the balance. Approximately 800,000 students will receive almost $1.2 billion in the 2009-2010 award year.
Harvard University has an endowment of $34 billion, compared to BC's $1.75 billion. BC spent $131 million last year on all tuition assistance, with $88 million for undergraduates and $43 million for graduate students.
Pekala pointed out the discrepancy between schools with huge endowments, like Harvard, and BC. "We'd love to give more money to students, but we're not in the same category as a school like Harvard in terms of our endowment," Pekala said.
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