This week, Dartmouth expands its financial aid program, Princeton retains legacy preference, Vanderbilt creates a new college, several colleges and universities cross the $90,000 tuition threshold, and FAFSA delays and errors continue.
A major gift to Dartmouth College will have a significant impact on financial aid offerings, allowing the school to nearly double its “zero parent contribution threshold.” Starting this fall, any student with a family income below $125,000 will receive a financial aid offer with no expectation for parent contribution. Students will be expected to contribute up to $5,000 toward the cost of tuition, room and board from summer or campus employment.
Princeton University will continue to consider legacy preference in admissions, citing both the importance of maintaining connections with a diverse base of alumni and the overall strength of the legacy applicant pool.
Vanderbilt University has announced the creation of a new college, the College of Connected Computing, dedicated to the study of computing, AI, and data science. This will be the first new college established at Vanderbilt since 1981.
The cost to attend several colleges and universities in the Boston area – Boston University, Tufts University, and Wellesley College – will cross the $90,000 threshold for the 2024-25 academic year. Yale University will also cost upwards of $90,000 this coming year.
The FAFSA continues to present challenges to students and colleges alike. Last week’s calculation error resulted in hundreds of thousands of student forms being deemed unusable. Additionally, students will be unable to make corrections of their forms until sometime in the first half of April, weeks later than initially expected.
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