Harvard

Harvard was finally moved, replacing its refusal to change with a pledge to make its offers competitive on a case-by-case basis, upping its offers on an individual basis and giving the class of 2002 just enough to win them over from competitors. Harvard's system still counts all of a family's home equity when calculating need.

MIT

MIT dropped $1,000 from student self-help requirements.

Penn

Penn strengthened a system of merit-based "preferential packages" by eliminating loans for 100 outstanding students.

Princeton

At the end of January, Princeton started a war. It allocated an additional $6 million to unilaterally cut student self-help and expected parental contributions for the class of 2002, replacing these with outright grants.

Stanford

Stanford's program reduced family contributions and self-help, increasing their costs to $3.8 million. Their plan also employed outside scholarships to reduce self-help requirements.

Yale

Yale reduced family contributions and self-help, increasing their costs to $3.5 million. Plans for the future

Harvard

Harvard will announce it's new financial aid policy soon.

MIT