Financial Aid at Vassar | One big piggy bank

Amanda Melillo Opinions Editor

Colleges use a variety of terms in the admissions process to describe their financial aid policies; it is not uncommon to hear anything from “need aware” to “need blind.” Vassar’s official policy is that the College is “need sensitive” when admitting students, which can be a misleading term. As stated by the viewbook located in the Admissions Office, Vassar meets the demonstrated financial need of all admitted students. Financial need is calculated by a national formula used by colleges based on the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and CSS/Financial Need profile. Vassar, however, describes itself as “need sensitive” rather than “need blind,” because financial need might be taken into account at the very end of the admissions process.

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid David Borus explained, “The Board of Trustees, in the ’96-’97 school year, changed the policy to one that said openly that we might have to take need into account at the very end of the admissions process if the [financial aid] budget has been exhausted.” This is used only at the very end of admissions selections and has a minimal impact on decisions that are made, as 95 percent or more are admitted without consideration of need.

Each year, the admissions officers keep track of how much aid they are offering during the decisions process, and make projections on spending plans to avoid over-budgeting. “Every year we want to admit more students than we have spaces,” Borus said. “But in no way is financial status more important than academic credentials.”

A caveat does occur when Admissions has room to take students off the waitlist and has exhausted the financial aid budget for the incoming class. Sometimes need is taken into account for waitlisted applicants, particularly international students who do not qualify for state or national financial aid, and transfer students, both of whom the College informs of this through writing. In years when there is a higher yield than projected, such as the Class of 2005 when 696 students accepted admissions offers when only 640 were expected, more students receive aid, but this does not create hardship within the College.

“Vassar is very generous with its financial aid. We aid a higher percentage than virtually any of our co-educational, liberal arts peers, including Amherst and Williams,” Borus said. Last year, Williams and Wesleyan gave in the lower 40 percent range in need based aid; Vassar was over five percent higher. In the last five years, at least 50 percent of students have received funds from the College.

Borus also noted that unlike some peer institutions, Vassar only awards need-based sholarships. Furthermore, Vassar does not “bait and switch,” as some other colleges do, offering financial aid initially, and then revoking it in subsequent years.

According to Borus, no Vassar students pays his or her entire way, even if he or she pays the entire tuition. “The cost of a studen’s eductation is actually much larger than what the College charges,” said Borus. Vassar students pay about 60 percent of the cost of their education, and alumni gifts and the endowment cover the difference. “In this sense, every student is on financial aid,” said Borus.

Borus noted that Vassar covers 100 percent of admitted students’ need. “You have to look at how much money we give out to how many students; we give out more aid than our need-blind peers,” Borus said. “Our practice is to be generous and afford an academic experience to every student that we admit.”

But there are other policies enacted by the College with the goal of evening financial inequalities. The Vassar Student Association Council is concious of student need when divying out funds. The council gives increased fuinding to those organizations and events whose admission costs are low or free.

“The idea is that we a pay a student activity fee and one of our goals is to make that student activity fee go as far as possible,” said VSA Treasurer Andy Caselli. The student activity fee, a payment of $300 is paid by all students and comprises the entire budget of the VSA. “We don’t want to deny students access to the activities they want,” said Caselli. “We try to spread the pie as fairly as possible.”

According to Caselli, the 2005 Halloween dance was a good example of responsible budgeting. “A lot of organizations put on these events to make money, but the Class of 2005 only charged enough to cover costs.”

With additional reporting by Aaron Biberstein, Co-Editor in Chief