collegeforkatie.com

This is great news for college students! When you consider that the average cost of a university degree is upwards of $40,000 per year, while the average graduating salary is a dismal $25,000. Add the cost of living, food, clothing, transportation, and all those taxes, local, state and federal. It could easily take over ten years to pay back those loans. I say Bravo!

Here are the excerpts if you wish to learn more:

UPenn to eliminate student loans by 2009
Posted Monday, December 17, 2007 at 11:38 am
PHILADELPHIA Officials at the University of Pennsylvania say they’ll begin giving loan-free financial aid packages to eligible undergraduates starting in the fall of 2009.

Penn will phase in the changes next fall by eliminating loans for students with family incomes under $100,000.

At the same time, the Ivy League school will reduce need-based loans by 10 percent for students whose families make more than $100,000.

Penn costs about $46,000 a year for tuition and room and board.

Monday’s announcement continues a trend among elite private colleges to replace loans with grants in financial aid packages. Harvard University and Swarthmore College announced similar policies this month.

http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=1288

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Published in the Columbia Spectator (http://www.columbiaspectator.com)
Following Princeton, Schools Switch to Grants
By Keren Daskin
Created 11/26/2007
Since Princeton’s 2001 debut as the first private university to eliminate loans in favor of grants, many institutions have followed suit.
Although no other Ivy university has replicated Princeton’s move to completely eliminate loans in place of grants, in 2006, Columbia replaced loans with grants for families earning under $50,000 per year. Similar policies were enacted in 2005 by Dartmouth and University of Pennsylvania, which eliminated loans for families whose household income was less than $30,000 and $50,000, respectively.
With a current trend in independent colleges and universities transitioning from loans to grants for students whose annual household income is below $50,000, Wesleyan University is the most recent institution to jump on the financial aid bandwagon.

Source URL:
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/28295

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