Several aspects of financial aid will likely change next year as a result of a University study about the experiences of students receiving aid.
Several aspects of financial aid will likely change next year as a result of a University study about the experiences of students receiving aid.
The details of the changes are still being finalized, but Provost Peter Lange said the adjustments could be in place by Fall 2005.
The recommendations come from the first complete study of financial aid in more than a decade.
“They are designed to assure that the experience of our aided students comes as close as possible to the experience of unaided students,” Lange said.
The most costly change would allow students on aid who take unpaid internships to waive their summer earnings requirement for that year. The study committee recommended the allowance in light of the increasing importance of internships in post-graduation job placement.
Representatives from the office of financial aid and the Duke University Career Center still have to develop oversight guidelines for the program, but Jim Roberts, executive vice provost for finance and administration and a member of the committee, said students next year will likely be able to take advantage of the change.
In addition, the mandatory increase in the annual family contribution will be eliminated. University policy is to reevaluate family situations every year, but it requires the parental contribution to increase by approximately 3 percent, even if the family’s situation does not change. The report found this increase inconsistent with the overarching policies governing financial aid, which state students are only responsible for their calculated need. “We thought if we were doing all this analysis, let’s just follow the analysis,” Roberts said.
Although the report initially recommended budgeting fees such as post office box rental, quad fees and residential fees into aid allotments, administrators found that many costs were already considered when constructing aid packages.
If the changes are finalized, other improvements will include:
• Scholarship money from academic prizes can be used to reduce students’ loan packages rather than their grant money. “It’ll be a real benefit,” Lange said.
Because the University wants to ensure that the money was awarded for exceptional academic work, guidelines are still being established for what will qualify as prize money, Roberts said.
• The first-year dining plan allotment, which is currently about $120 less than the cost of the required freshman meal plan, will be increased to cover the full price.
• Transfer students will be eligible for as many semesters of aid as required to complete their Duke degrees. Until this year, aid received from previous schools counted against the financial aid limit, which is eight semesters and two summer terms. The committee noted that financial aid limits should be dictated by the amount of Duke classes needed to graduate since full academic credit is not always given for prior coursework. This change, recommended in the report, took affect at the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year.
Other changes would not be retroactive, Roberts said, but they would apply to all students rather than just new matriculants.
The total cost of the likely reforms would be about $310,000 each year, according to the report.
“None of these are huge,” Roberts said. “The money comes from wherever financial aid comes from.”
The University’s financial aid budget is more than $40 million annually. Whereas at many of Duke’s peer institutions the bulk of financial aid funding comes from endowments, Duke draws much of its funds from its operating budget.
Lange noted earlier this year that in order to make more sweeping changes to financial aid, the University would have to raise a substantial amount of money. To fully endow aid at its current level would cost about $1 billion.
In part due to Duke’s limited financial resources, the University will continue to study the more expensive reforms the report suggested before implementing them. The largest potential change could involve awarding a portion of grant aid before offering University loans, Roberts said. A combination of loans and grants from the University would still be used to meet students’ full demonstrated needs.
Although many students would be unaffected by that change because they receive more than the initial allotment of grant aid, officials speculate that it might entice some students who currently are only offered loans to come to Duke.
Because the extent to which the change could affect enrollment is difficult to determine, officials are unsure what the costs or the benefits would be. Lange said a pilot study has been commissioned to further review the change.
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