Guest column:Financial aid ehancements tangible, vital
In an ideal world, college admissions would be based solely on merit, and the cost of education would have no bearing on the matriculation decision. Even with supportive parents, the burden of financial responsibility is heavy, and the cost of education is far from cheap. Recent changes in financial aid policies of top American universities have changed the college admissions environment and made the competition for the top students even more competitive.In the final months of 2007, Harvard University created ripples in higher education by revamping its financial aid policy. By changing tuition to cost 10 percent of family income for students from families earning up to $180,000 per year (tuition would be $18,000 per year for those hypothetical students), Harvard greatly decreased the cost of education for students from middle to upper-middle class backgrounds. This policy shift was mimicked by Yale University, while Dartmouth College, Cornell University, Duke University and our own Rice University have chosen the less drastic measure of increasing the maximum income for providing full tuition, allowing families who make more to pay less.