Loan requirement reinstituted for financial aid recipients with family income above threshold
Dartmouth announced today that tuition for its 2010-2011 academic year will be $39,978, an increase of 4 percent from the current year’s tuition. Tuition covers about half the cost of a Dartmouth education, with the balance met primarily through income from endowment investments and annual giving.
With tuition, room, board and mandatory fees, next year’s total cost will be $52,275, a 4.6 percent increase from 2009-2010. This is the smallest percentage increase in overall charges since 2005. The mandatory fees include a new $75 per term health services fee, for which financial aid will be available as needed. The student services fee will not increase for 2010-2011.
The tuition rates apply to all undergraduates as well as students in the Arts and Sciences graduate programs and in Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering, which offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. Tuition charges for Dartmouth Medical School and Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business will each increase 6 percent, to $45,075 per year and $50,700 per year, respectively.
Referring to various budget reduction and strategic investment initiatives that the College also announced today, Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim said, “As Dartmouth, like its peers, continues to deal with the impact of the recession on our financial resources, our goal is always to ensure that a Dartmouth education stays within the financial reach of the most talented students, regardless of their financial means. We are working to keep Dartmouth fiscally strong while also maintaining the principles that have helped put it among the first rank of higher education institutions.”
Dartmouth is one of a small number of colleges and universities fully committed to a need-blind admissions policy for undergraduates — including for international students — where the College admits students regardless of their ability to pay, and will meet 100 percent of enrolled students’ demonstrated need for a full four years.
As part of the College’s effort to address its pressing financial challenges, Dartmouth will implement two changes to its current financial aid program while simultaneously increasing the financial aid budget 10 percent next year:
The College will continue its commitment to provide free tuition and a no-loans expectation for students with family incomes of $75,000 a year or less — part of a policy it instituted two years ago under which loans were eliminated for all financial aid recipients regardless of family income. However, beginning with the Class of 2015, which will matriculate in the fall of 2011, Dartmouth will meet financial aid needs of students with family incomes above $75,000 through a mix of loans, scholarships, and work study. The balance between the various forms of assistance will vary according to income, with the loan requirement for financial aid recipients from households earning $75,001 - $200,000 ranging from $2,500-$5,500 annually. Current students receiving financial aid and applicants to the Class of 2014 will not be affected.
Beginning in summer 2010, the College will require financial aid recipients approaching the summer between their junior and senior years to apply for — rather than be automatically granted — a “free summer term” to pursue off-campus study, research work and other academic activities rather than earnings. The intent of the free summer term program when it was instituted two years ago was to promote these types of academic enrichment activities. An application process will assure that the limited pool of funds available for the program goes to those who demonstrate that they will pursue such activities.
Nearly 53 percent of the members of the Dartmouth Class of 2013, which matriculated last September, received need-based aid from Dartmouth. The average scholarship for that group was $35,500. In all, Dartmouth has awarded nearly $71 million in scholarships to students in all four undergraduate classes (2010-2013) in the current academic year, which will grow to $78 million next year even with these changes.
Dartmouth’s need-blind policy and its generous financial aid program enable it to enroll one of the most economically diverse groups of students in the Ivy League. Currently, approximately 13 percent of Dartmouth students are the first in their families to attend college and about 14 percent are also recipients of Pell Grants (a federal grant for students who come from low-income families).