COLLEGE SHORTS

Author: Lisie Mehlman

Top-tier colleges increase aid for

incoming students

There now exists a veritable competition among Ivy League colleges to attract low- and middle- income students by offering the most appealing and comprehensive financial aid packages. President of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers, explained in a public statement that "there is no more important mission for Harvard and higher education than promoting equality of opportunity for all."

Toward this end, the University has recently amended its policy of refusing to ask parents who earned less than $40,000 a year to contribute funds for the cost of tuition. Now, that figure has been pushed back to $60,000. While students are expected to hold jobs and contribute money toward payments, this augmentation of financial aid is intended to show middle class families that providing their children with an Harvard education is in no way impossible.

This change in policy has been preceded by similar efforts at other top-tier institutions to make their schools more accessible to a wider population of students. In 1998, Princeton began replacing loans with grants for students from families whose annual income fell below $46,500. In 2001, in the most radical move yet, it extended that policy to all undergraduates. In 2004, Brown followed suit and a $100 million donation allowed it, too, to replace loans with grants for 135 students.

Within the last month, MIT, Yale and Stanford have all announced the implementation of financial aid plans quite similar to those already in place elsewhere.

- The New York Times

More international students apply to U.S. grad schools

A recent study by the Council of Graduate Schools, a Washington D.C.-based group that seeks to advance graduate education issues, discovered that the number of graduate applications submitted by international students has increased by 11 percent from 2005 to 2006. This sharp increase is the first in two years. Following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, international student enrollment in graduate programs had significantly declined.

After the terrorist attacks, the government tightened visa regulations and began to require that all students applying for visas be interviewed in person. This resulted in a great deal of back logs.

Another reason for the lack of increase in applications submitted to U.S. graduate schools by international students is the increased competition that graduate programs at schools in New Zealand, Australia and England present.

David Wilson, associate dean and director of the graduate school at Southern Illinois University explained that universities throughout the nation have increased their recruiting of international students to combat this trend. He also said that the high cost of living in places like England has once again made attending graduate school in the U.S. an appealing and affordable option. Perhaps more importantly, international students are reevaluating how they might be accepted at schools in America.

- Daily Egyptian