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Dartmouth will eliminate loans from financial aid packages for undergraduates

The exterior of Baker on Dartmouth's campus
Dan Tuohy
/
NHPR

Starting this summer, Dartmouth College will replace student loans with scholarships in its financial aid packages for undergraduate students and their families.

Total costs for the upcoming school year — including tuition, room and board, and other fees — exceed $83,000, according to Dartmouth’s admission website. About half of students receive scholarships or financial aid.

While the college currently covers the full cost of tuition for families making less than $125,000, this new initiative targets families earning more.

Dino Koff, director of financial aid at the college, said parents making $125,000 or more will still be expected to pay some money toward the cost of their child’s education at Dartmouth. Students can also still take out loans, and he expects about 450 students will qualify for this initiative.

Until now, Koff said the college has typically included loans of up to $5,500 per year in its packages.

“By making this announcement, we have helped families up to $22,000, essentially, over the four years that they'll be studying at Dartmouth,” he said.

About $120 million in donations to the college’s endowment are underwriting this new initiative.

Dartmouth also recently announced plans to provide additional financial aid to families earning less than $65,000 per year and to extend need-blind admissions to non-U.S. citizens.

In adopting its new no-loan policy, Dartmouth joins other Ivy League schools that have taken a similar approach, including Harvard, Brown and Yale.

Daniela is an editor in NHPR's newsroom. She leads NHPR's Spanish language news initiative, ¿Qué Hay de Nuevo, New Hampshire? and the station's climate change reporting project, By Degrees. You can email her at dallee@nhpr.org.
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