A wallet-breaking alumni donation of $100 million dollars is helping Brown University do what every college dreams of–improving financial aid packages.</p>
<p>In an era of skyrocketing annual tuition, thousands of colleges nationwide–including seven of the Ivy League Institutions–use a combination of grant and loans to aid eligible students. While Princeton became the first Ivy League college to fully replace loans with grants in 2001, Brown is not far behind.</p>
<p>The generous gift was made by Sydney E. Frank, a New York businessman who attended Brown for one year as part of the class of 1942. The donation will replace all loans with scholarship grants for students who demonstrate the highest level of financial need. Starting with the class of 2009, Brown will distribute the money to nearly 128 first-years over a four-year period.</p>
<p>“It’s just terrific,” said Michael Bartini, director of financial aid at Brown. “Whenever you have the opportunity to give students better financial aid, it’s good news for the University.”</p>
<p>Brown does not currently require financial aid students to pursue work-study jobs in their first year, allowing easier acclimation to the rigors of college life without the pressure of paying back loans. Even the lucky Frank Scholars, who won’t have to take out student loans for any of their four years, will still be required to work after their first two semesters.</p>
<p>Many upperclassmen at Brown, however, are starting to feel the crunch of their own loans weighing on their list of things to do. “The Frank Scholarship a great opportunity for new freshmen, but I wish the money could help out current students too,” said Elizabeth Rhodes, a current junior at Brown.</p>
<p>It took Brown almost three years to follow Princeton’s lead in offering significantly more grant scholarships, leaving students at Columbia to wonder if their school will go ever go completely loan-free too.</p>
<p>“Columbia’s financial aid system is so confusing,” said Laurel Gordon, CC '05. “But a college should do whatever it can to help students meet tuition costs, if that means using just grants or loans or a mixture of both.”</p>
<p>Indeed, most students don’t know the intricacies of Columbia’s financial aid services. According to data from the financial aid office, this year about 46 percent of CC and SEAS undergraduates receive some sort of need-based institutional grant totaling more than $46 million. Although such grants don’t require repayment, most don’t cover students’ full demonstrated need, much less the full cost of college, meaning that additional loans are almost always necessary.</p>
<p>As the movement towards grants seems to becoming a trend among Ivy League institutions, groups like Columbia College Student Council are devoting themselves to making the system more accessible to students in need. Working with the financial aid department, CCSC has a projected a long-term goal of working with Columbia’s Financial Aid office to replace loans with grants over a five-year period.</p>
<p>“While $46 million is already a very big number, raising the endowment funds necessary to increase grants and decrease work or loan is a stated priority for the next capital campaign,” said David Charlow, dean of financial aid.