Show me the money!
Chris Adkins October 1st, 2008
Tuition: $36,100
Housing: $7,828
Meals: $4,200
Books and Supplies: $1,208
Fees: $905
Personal: $2,062
Grand total for a year at Vanderbilt: $52,303
At the same time:
60% of undergrads receive some form of financial aid.
39% receive need-based grants.
Over $28 million was awarded in the form of grants or scholarships to this year’s freshman class.
Vanderbilt has been extremely generous. Without the scholarship that Vanderbilt gave me I wouldn’t be here right now. Many people I know are in the same situation; students from middle class families are often in an awkward position where they don’t qualify for the best types of aid available (such as grants instead of loans) yet can’t really afford to take out the loans that they are offered. For Vanderbilt students, that’s about to change.
Last night at midnight, Chancellor Zeppos announced Vanderbilt’s new expanded aid program to current students (copied below for your perusal). With this announcement, Vanderbilt is committing to reduce the debt of students by meeting all of their financial need with grants instead of loans. This move makes Vanderbilt more affordable for a significant portion of current Vanderbilt students and opens the doors to four years here for many potential applicants.
We’ve been lucky enough to be a need-blind institution already for quite some time now, which obviously helps us be able to admit some of the best and brightest students here without regard for their financial standing. Now, as Vanderbilt becomes cheaper with this switch to grants in lieu of loans, hopefully more and more of those students will be able to attend without any reservations stemming from their ability to repay loans after graduation.
These are exciting times. And it’s doubtless that even more changes are right around the corner. That’s the great thing about Vanderbilt; as I heard someone describe a few weeks ago, some top schools expect you to be honored to attend whereas Vanderbilt is honored to have you. This attitude leads to constant innovation on the part of the administration resulting from reflection on student life and input from students themselves, ultimately leading to changes like this and the realization of other revolutionary ideas such as the Commons. It seems like the quality of life at Vanderbilt improves year by year, and for that I am deeply grateful.
Chancellor Zeppos’ letter:
Dear Vanderbilt Students:
I write today to share with you some exciting news about an initiative that will make a Vanderbilt education more accessible to talented undergraduate students. Beginning in fall 2009, the university will eliminate need-based loans and replace them with Vanderbilt grants and scholarships for all undergraduate students with demonstrated financial need. This step is in keeping with Vanderbilt’s commitment that ability, achievement and hard work - not a family’s financial circumstances - should determine access to a great education.
For our current seniors who will graduate in May 2009, this new initiative will be extended for the 2009 spring semester, and any need-based loans in your financial package for the spring 2009 semester will be replaced with institutional grants. Eligible seniors will receive revised financial assistance letters by mid-November.
Over the past seven years, Vanderbilt has worked aggressively to reduce student loan debt, and this enhanced financial aid initiative is the pinnacle of that strategy and represents the foresight of our Board of Trust.
Funding for this new initiative will come from a combination of strategic internal allocations and increased scholarship endowment, including an additional $100 million in gifts and pledges that will be sought through the university’s Shape the Future campaign, which already has allowed us to reduce students’ loan debt by 17 percent over the past several years.
You will hear much more about this new initiative in the coming weeks and months, but I wanted you to be among the first to know about this very significant moment in the life of your university. This bold step will allow Vanderbilt to continue recruiting the most highly achieving students in a very competitive way and will strengthen our mission of nurturing a student body composed of young men and women of all economic, cultural and geographic backgrounds. For when our campus population is reflective of our greater society, it further enriches the Vanderbilt experience for all of us. To read more about the new initiative, please visit the Web site Vanderbilt University: Expanded Aid Program.
Sincerely,
Nicholas S. Zeppos
Chancellor
