Financial aid changes will benefit University life

As the first semester broke for intersession last Saturday morning, Princeton's Board of Trustees, bolstered by a record capital campaign and an ever-growing endowment, made an unprecedented series of changes to the financial aid program. Beginning next fall, all student loans will be replaced by outright grants that will act effectively as partial scholarships, and this change will eliminate loans for nearly a quarter of each class. In addition, after a successful trial run this past admissions cycle, all future admissions for international students will be need-blind, addressing a long-standing criticism of international admissions.

There will be several important consequences of this new financial aid policy. First and of most direct impact, students will be able to graduate without debt to the University, which will remove pressures for students to find more lucrative but perhaps less appealing post-graduation jobs. According to the Office of Communications, the average U.S. college student graduating this year will owe $15,000 to $20,000, and by eliminating that debt, Princeton makes it easier for its financial aid students to take teaching jobs, to go on to graduate school or to work in low-paying research positions upon graduation if they so desire. In time, this may mean that consulting and investment banking may become less ubiquitous as first jobs for graduating seniors. Moreover, other colleges and universities — particularly peer institutions in the Ivy League — will feel pressure to follow Princeton's lead in reforming financial aid. Some schools may not have the resources to adopt such a comprehensive program, but on the whole, the broad changes in financial aid that will hopefully follow from Princeton's efforts will make top-tier higher education more accessible to all students across the country. In this respect, Princeton will truly be "in the nation's service."

Perhaps most importantly, Princeton will find it easier to attract a more economically diverse group of applicants among both domestic and international students. Students who might otherwise have ruled Princeton out as an option simply on the basis of cost may not do so from now on. That will help to combat the reality of economic homogeneity on campus, and it may also in the long term help to lessen Princeton's national image as a school for the Eastern social elite.

Both of these are problems Princeton has been trying to address for some time. In short, then, the new financial aid program is both generous and far-reaching, and Princeton is fortunate that it can afford such changes. And yet, despite the financial-aid reform, there are still elements of campus life itself that force an economic divide — most significantly, as bicker and sign-ins take place, the eating club system. There remain a number of students who simply cannot afford to join an eating club, and no financial aid program will resolve that issue. As long as the 'Street' remains the social center of campus life, and as long as students from lower income backgrounds cannot truly be a part of that scene, economic stratification on campus will continue to exist.

The University can combat this problem in one of two ways. It can further extend financial aid to help needy students who wish to join eating clubs, almost acknowledging that the cost of membership can for some be an inherent cost of attending Princeton. Or — in a more desirable but also more challenging solution — the University can continue to work towards establishing a still broader variety of social options, trying in the meantime to blur existing divisions between the eating clubs and alternative social and dining options. This is, of course, much more easily said than done, and how to achieve such social balance on campus is a subject for another day. In the meantime, the new financial aid program is a wonderful place to start.

(Alex Rawson is a history major from Shaker Heights, OH. He can be reached at alrawson@princeton.edu)