Williams joins growing list of schools eliminating student loans

Friday, November 02, 2007

Williams College is joining a growing number of schools that are eliminating student loans in financial aid packages and replacing them with grants.

The move, announced today by President Morton Owen Schapiro, will open Williams to more lower-income applicants and widen the array of career options open to students who can now graduate debt free.

The decision, approved by the trustees, applies to all future aid awards, including those of current students, Schapiro wrote in an e-mail to all students, faculty and staff.

The liberal arts school has already eliminated loans for students from families in the lowest income brackets, while other students have been required to take on debt depending on income up to a maximum of $13,800.

"We consider the estimated cost of this change, around $1.8 million, to be a sound investment of college resources in the growing diversity of our student body and in the future of our financial aid students, who now will be free to make post-graduation plans without the inhibition of college debt," Schapiro wrote in his e-mail.

Williams currently spends about $32 million per year on scholarships, and about half the student body of about 2,100 qualifies for college-based aid.

The cost of tuition, room, board and other fees at Williams without any form of assistance is about $45,000 per year.

Williams, founded in 1793, is located about 135 miles west of Boston.
Princeton, Davidson and Amherst have also eliminated loans from financial aid packages.

Source: http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1041994