Tough Times Strain Colleges Rich and Poor

[Sligh_Anarchist]

<p>[Tough</a> Times Strain Colleges Rich and Poor](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/education/08college.html?em]Tough”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/education/08college.html?em)</p>

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Tufts University, which for the last two years has, proudly, been one of the few colleges in the nation that could afford to be need-blind — that is, to admit the best-qualified applicants and meet their full financial need — may not be able to maintain that generosity for next year’s incoming class.

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At Williams College, for example, President Morton Owen Schapiro wrote that with last year’s negative return on the endowment and the worsening situation since June, some renovation and facilities spending would be reduced and nonessential openings left unfilled.

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Vassar College will give out $1 million more in financial aid this year than originally budgeted, even though the endowment, which provides a third of its operating budget, dropped to $765 million at the end of September, down $80 million from late June. President Catharine Bond Hill of Vassar said the college would reduce its operating costs, but remain need-blind.

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