Advertisement

Quiet Financial Aid Battle an Experiment Before Fall Policy Change

And, though a charge led by budget-consciousKnowles led Miller and others to retract theirpledges for formal aid changes, sources acrosscampus including Rudenstine himself point to aneed for formal change in the fall to fight anincreasingly powerful pull of aid offers at otherschools

Change seems likely in the mix of self-help andgrants given to students. Miller said the aidreview committee would likely take a "hard look"at Stanford's program of using outsidescholarships to reduce self-help requirements,instead of partially applying them against directgrants.

In addition, it also seems likely thatself-help will be reduced in general, followingRudenstine's earlier statement that "some peoplethink our students work too hard."

It is not certain whether current students orjust entering first-years students will benefitfrom any formal increase.

Judging by the jump in aid expenses from thisyear's informal competitiveness, a formal increasecould have a price tag around $2 million per class.

Advertisement

But it is not likely to be far larger:"shouting distance" was nothing if not anestimation of the value added by Harvard's name.

And if pairing prestige with pocketbook costHarvard at most only $1.5 million this year, itseems there will be little incentive for Harvardto up the ante for the class of 2003.CrimsonJason Y. Cho

Advertisement