Editorial: Tying a Yellow Ribbon around Princeton?

The benefits of joining this program are slim. The University’s generous financial aid policy already covers the demonstrated needs of all its applicants, including veterans. Most veterans applying to Princeton already receive more financial aid than they would at the vast majority of other schools, even those participating in the Yellow Ribbon Program. Unlike Princeton, however, the program would provide the same aid to veterans regardless of their financial resources. Since Princeton already covers all demonstrated financial need, the only applicants who would benefit from Princeton entering the program would be veterans who already have the means to pay for a Princeton education — the result of which would be that Princeton would be providing unnecessary aid to well-off students.

By avoiding merit-based aid in general, Princeton acknowledges that all of its students are worthy of merit. Service to one’s nation is a particularly laudable act, and Princeton should seek to attract individuals who choose to give back to their country, including Navy veterans, AmeriCorps alumni and former Foreign Service officers. Yet the University’s resources should be devoted to students who demonstrate financial need rather than making an institutional decision about which type of service is more praiseworthy.

Princeton’s resources would be better spent on recruiting more veterans from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to our campus than paying for the education of a handful of well-off veterans through this program. Likewise, the government resources we would be taking can be put to better use at schools that cannot meet Princeton’s level of generosity to all of our applicants. Princeton has been put in a difficult position because of its choice not to join the Yellow Ribbon Program, a decision with the unfortunate consequence of appearing to the outside world as unsupportive of America’s veterans. Yet secure with the knowledge that Princeton continues to provide generously for all of its applicants, we commend the University’s decision because it remains true to the principle of need-based aid.