As other Ivies revamp their financial aid policies to significantly alter student aid packages, Penn officials are saying that they won't necessarily be able to match some of their peer institutions' new policies. Last Wednesday, Harvard University became the second Ivy League institution to announce major changes in its undergraduate financial aid program. The plan -- which came on the heels of Princeton's January decision to replace all loan requirements for financial aid with grants -- will give qualified students an extra $2,000 in assistance from Harvard. But many of Princeton's and Harvard's peer institutions will be unable to match the new programs of these two schools. And Penn is among those universities without the means to offer students similar packages. According to University Director of Financial Aid Bill Schilling, Penn simply doesn't have the finances to match Harvard and Princeton. "We clearly don't have the endowment that Princeton and Harvard have," he said. "It's going to be virtually impossible for any school to do [what Harvard and Princeton have done]." Penn Vice President Steve Schutt said that such concerns at Penn may be offset by the University's policy of trying to match the aid packages offered to prospective students by other schools on a case-by-case basis. "I think it's been a practice here for some time that in that situation [of a better financial aid offer], we will try to bring our package up to what other schools have done," Schutt said. Schutt speculated that Harvard's recent move was influenced, at least in part, by Princeton's January decision. However, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokeswoman Sally Baker said that the decision was unrelated to Princeton, except that it reflects the strong financial positions of both universities. "I think the only way that it actually relates is that we're both in an economic position where we can do things like this," Baker said. Princeton and Harvard were among several top-tier institutions that saw their endowments rise dramatically in Fiscal Year 2000 due to heavy investment in the then-burgeoning technology stocks. Penn's endowment was down 1.8 percent in that same time frame. Currently, Penn's endowment sits at about $3.2 billion. By comparison, Harvard's endowment is now at $19 billion, and Princeton has an $8 billion endowment. However, Penn is not alone in its inability to match the Princeton and Harvard plans. According to Jim Belvin, director of financial aid at Duke University, the North Carolina college will do "nothing radical as a result." Earlier this month, Belvin had said that financially, Duke was not in a position to compete with Princeton's new plan. "I cannot imagine that we would be able to match that in any way, shape or form," he said. However, Belvin did praise Harvard's decision to give financial aid applicants more money up front. "I applaud Harvard," he said. "I thought Princeton had changed the way of financing education in a way that required greater thought." Following Princeton's landmark decision, Belvin had attacked its new plan as changing the nature of financial aid, which he said had always been understood to be a "partnership" between universities, families and the government. But Belvin, while saying that Duke would not adopt a measure as large as Harvard's, did say that lowering the financial burden on students is "a goal that all of us have." Cynthia Hartley, director of financial aid policy and planning analysis at Stanford University, said that Stanford is constantly in the process of modifying its financial aid system. "We have made some changes for next year, which we always do at this time of year," Hartley said. According to Hartley, these plans include lowering the "self-help" portion of Stanford's financial aid package by $250. Furthermore, Hartley, while not stating that the Princeton and Harvard changes had had any real effect on Stanford's thinking, said that the university is always watching what its peers. "We always like to keep an eye on what everybody else is doing," she said. Hartley also said that the Princeton and Harvard decisions could draw students away from other schools when it comes time for perspective students to make a decision as to which college they will attend. "It certainly raises concerns," Hartley said.
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