The total cost of tuition, room and board at the College for the 1998-99 school year is expected to rise 3.5 percent to $31,132--the smallest percentage increase in 30 years.

This will be the seventh year in a row that Harvard has lowered the rate of its tuition growth. The average rate of increase over the last 20 years has been 8.7 percent.

The reduced rate also falls below last year's family income growth of about 4 percent nationally.

In announcing the tuition growth rate Wednesday, Jeremy R. Knowles, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), stressed the strength of Harvard's financial aid program.

"Harvard College intends to continue its strong commitment to need-blind admissions and full need-based aid," Knowles said in a statement.

Knowles' decision comes just after Yale, Princeton and Stanford announced expanded financial aid programs for aid middle-class students.

"This year's increase is lower than nearly all of the tuition increases that I have seen from our peer institutions," Knowles said.

Yale College, however, has announced a reduction from 3.7 percent tuition growth to 2.9 percent, a 30-year low for Yale as well.

The full cost for tuition, room and board at Yale has been set at $30,830 for next year. In addition, Yale said it will alter the way it calculates financial need.

Yale's endowment--which did particularly well during

Stanford University has approved a tuitionpackage increase of 3.5 percent, in addition tomaking changes in its methods of determiningfinancial need.

The new policies were designed to helpalleviate "the pressures facing middle-classparents," said Stanford President Gerhard Casper.

Knowles said Harvard's program, too, will bescrutinized. "In the coming months we shall reviewour programs and our practices to ensure thatHarvard College remains accessible, affordable andattractive," Knowles said.

Students said they saw Harvard's move as aresponse to those at other Ivy league colleges."What they need to do is keep tuition competitivewith other schools," said Yeong Loh '98.

But Loh said he was skeptical of how effectivethe change will be. "It won't help much becausethe reduction isn't that much," he said.

Richard A. Perez '00 also said he saw thereduction as a response to Yale, Princeton andStanford, but he expressed disappointment with thescope of the change.