Davidson college dropping loans
PackMom
7650 replies17 postsRegistered User Senior Member
This was in our newspaper this morning:
"Davidson College will announce today that it will no longer offer loans in it's student financial aid packages, partly to attract students who shied away from applying to the school because of it's costs.
"Starting this fall, students eligible for aid will receive bigger grants to make up for lost loans. Families may still take out personal loans if they want, but the school won't require them."
"About 33 percent of Davidson students receive need-based aid, but officials said that number could grow under the no-loans policy if more lower-and middle-class students apply to the school. Students will pay $43,520 in 2007-2008 for tuition, fees,books, travel adn other costs."
"Davidson has worked in recent years to curb costs for families including capping loans to $3000 per year. But President Robert Vagt and others say the school is not as accessible now as in the past."
"I don't want to say that we looked at the student body and said 'Oh my gosh, this isn't the mixture we like,' Vagt said. "We said if we want to maintain the diversity of the student body, we need to be much more proactive."
"The program will cost roughly $1.8 million a year for the roughly 35 percent of students now on aid. Vagt says tuiton won't be raised for the program The school plans to cancel loans for current Davidson students who will be at the school this fall, as well as in-coming classes."
"But leaders expect the number of needy students to grow. Should 40 percent of students need aid, it would cost about $3.5 million a year, Vagt said."
19 replies"Davidson College will announce today that it will no longer offer loans in it's student financial aid packages, partly to attract students who shied away from applying to the school because of it's costs.
"Starting this fall, students eligible for aid will receive bigger grants to make up for lost loans. Families may still take out personal loans if they want, but the school won't require them."
"About 33 percent of Davidson students receive need-based aid, but officials said that number could grow under the no-loans policy if more lower-and middle-class students apply to the school. Students will pay $43,520 in 2007-2008 for tuition, fees,books, travel adn other costs."
"Davidson has worked in recent years to curb costs for families including capping loans to $3000 per year. But President Robert Vagt and others say the school is not as accessible now as in the past."
"I don't want to say that we looked at the student body and said 'Oh my gosh, this isn't the mixture we like,' Vagt said. "We said if we want to maintain the diversity of the student body, we need to be much more proactive."
"The program will cost roughly $1.8 million a year for the roughly 35 percent of students now on aid. Vagt says tuiton won't be raised for the program The school plans to cancel loans for current Davidson students who will be at the school this fall, as well as in-coming classes."
"But leaders expect the number of needy students to grow. Should 40 percent of students need aid, it would cost about $3.5 million a year, Vagt said."
Post edited by PackMom on
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Replies to: Davidson college dropping loans
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/03/19/davidson
This is the link but when I tried it it didn't seem to work for me. If it doesn't work for you just try charlotteobserver.com
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/171/story/56157.html
The article states the $3000 limit was for last year only. Prior to that it was $4000 freshman year increasing $500 per year after, meaning that a graduate had up to $19,000 (including intestest?) upon graduation. Here's an email sent to alumni.
Less than $20,000 in loans may sound like a small amount to us, but if the student involved was from a poor family with few resources, that student has no safety net. The student has no one to help buy a car, purchase a professional wardrobe (both of which are needed for that first job, even a teaching job), provide a security deposit on the apartment, any of that. And that student may have a strong desire to help out by sending money home to help with younger siblings. For all of those reasons, poorer students may feel a real budget pinch, one that makes loan payments on a modest salary more daunting. That modest salary could be teaching, or something even lower-paying, possibly with dicier benefits.
How widespread this thinking was among students at Davidson, I don't know. I have noticed a tendency in higher education (and other realms, as well) to hear one good story (or, in this case, six) and assume it represents some larger subset of students.
At any rate, I think this is a big help for some families, and I applaud it. I'm not sure about the rationale for upper middle class families.
My H graduated with significant debt and had little in the way of a safety net. He never went right into his own apartment. He moved back with his parents while beginning his career. He moved out 4 years later. I am sure that some students have that option, and some don't have that option. I am sure that some families will require rent from a college graduate who moves back home, and that might be appropriate too.
""About 33 percent of Davidson students receive need-based aid, but officials said that number could grow under the no-loans policy if more lower-and middle-class students apply to the school."
Will make no difference whatsover unless Davidson ACCEPTS them. Note there is no commitment to "increasing economic diversity". At 40% (rather than 33%) receiving need-based aid, combined with extraordinarily low Pell Grant attendees, they would remain among the three least economic diverse prestige LACs in the country.
As a result, these students frequently will not apply to or choose any school where they feel they will need to take out loans, to the point where they sometimes will choose the local community college over a great four-year university because "I don't want loans." I typically have to work very hard to convince them, and their parents, that a certain amount of student debt can not only be managable, but also an investment in their future.
So, in that regard, and having talked with Davidson's Admissions director myself recently about this issue (and Davidson IS very interested in admitting these students), I believe Davidson when they say they are hoping to increase diversity with this move. As with Hamilton, Davidson is looking down the road to the future and seeing how the demographics of potential students will be changing.
Now, of course, as Mini suggests, Davidson's current lack of diversity, both economic and racial, might suggest that Davidson won't be losing much by this move (they admit it will cost them about $3.5 million a year), but I, for one, think it is great that they decided to extend it to all students with demonstrated need, not just those below a certain family threshold like Princeton and Harvard.
Sounds to me like they finallly realized that they have pushed the pain level perhaps one notch too far, and competition from non-private schools and honors colleges is pinching their pool of applicants . This is, it would seem, the free market finally impinging on the race to the $50K+ college experience. At least at one school.
Princeton did it for all students as well. Indeed, the majority of beneficiaries at Princeton are those in the top quintile. From a competitive standpoint, that was the whole point.
At COFHE schools in general, 70% of the student populations come from the top quntile in income, and roughly 50% from the top 3%. At Davidson, those numbers are substantially higher, with 67% from the top 3%. The main beneficiaries will be those, as it Princeton, who they hope to prevent from accepting merit awards elsewhere, by providing small (even very small) grants in lieu of loans.
While I agree with Carolyn's characterization of loan-leeriness, my experience is somewhat different from hers. The low-income students I know are much more concerned about not being able to work to contribute to their family's income, and work-study at school or summer expectations as student contribution to cost of attendance is what prevents that from happening. This is one area where Brown University and Ruth Simmons got it right, and Princeton/Davidson got it wrong - actually they got it right, just not for low-income students. They know where their bread is buttered.
Concur with mini -- this is a way to offer upper middle class families a small discount so they won't matriculate to Richmond or Emory or Vandy or Wake.