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Dartmouth’s No-Loan Policy Eliminates Student Loans for Undergrads | This Week in Admissions News
25/06/2022•3 minute read
The world of college admissions is ever-changing and for students with university ambitions, it’s important to stay up-to-date on the latest developments. This week, Dartmouth College joins several of its Ivy League peers in getting rid of undergraduate loans in its financial aid packages and replacing them with scholarships. Check back next week to learn about the latest developments in university admissions news!
Dartmouth College announces an end to undergraduate student loans in favor of providing more scholarships
Starting from the current summer term on June 23, 2022, Dartmouth College will transition to a no-loan policy for its undergraduate students, removing all federal and institutional loans from its undergraduate financial aid packages and replacing them with expanded scholarship awards.
The decision was prompted by over $120 million in scholarship donations to the College’s Call to Lead campaign, including an anonymous $25 million gift.
With the elimination of loans, Dartmouth undergraduates will have more freedom to discover their purpose and passion in different fields without the financial burden of taking on student debt. "Thanks to this extraordinary investment by our community, students can prepare for lives of impact with fewer constraints," said Dartmouth College President Philip Hanlo.
It is estimated that the move will save students up to $5,500 per year in student debt.
While Dartmouth already offers generous financial assistance to students from low-income families, the move to a no-loan policy aims to assist middle-income families who often have to stretch their budget to pay for higher education, Dino Koff, Director of Financial Aid, explained in a statement.
The Call to Lead campaign is a “bold invitation to Dartmouth’s global community to engage with the great issues of this century and the next.” The campaign is also responsible for the College’s shift to offering need-blind admissions to international students, and last year’s move to increase the household income limit for full scholarships to $125,000 USD.
Several recent gifts helped Dartmouth achieve its no-loan financial aid goal. Anne Kubik, a 1987 Dartmouth graduate, pledged $10 million to the school in May; and Dartmouth recently received a contribution of $25 million from an anonymous donor, creating one of the largest scholarship funds in its history. In addition, over 65 families contributed to the campaign to eliminate the loan component from the College's financial aid program, adding more than $80 million to its endowment.
With its no-loan policy, Dartmouth joins several other Ivy League schools that have eliminated loans from their financial aid plans, including Brown University, Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University.
Other top stories in admissions news this week:
- The first cohort of post-COVID UK high school graduates now faces "a summer of uncertainty” as they compete for fewer places at popular UK universities.
- An ambitious first-generation Nigerian-American teenager, Ashley Adirika, was accepted into all eight Ivy League schools as well as seven other top US universities including Stanford, Vanderbilt, and Emory!
- "Ivy-or-bust:" In an interview with NPR, higher education experts explained why elite universities in the US are seeing record-high applications and enrollment numbers while other schools see plateaus or application declines.
