Making college affordable: schools lift financial burden from low-income students.There is a common perception that the more prestigious an institution is, the more it costs to attend. But a handful of schools, including University of North Carolina, University of North Carolina, University of, main campus at Chapel Hill; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1789, opened 1795, the first state college to open as a university. Michigan, University of Michigan, University of, main campus at Ann Arbor; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1817 at Detroit as the Catholepistemiad, or Univ., of Michigania, rechartered 1821 (as Univ. of Mich.) and 1837 (when it was relocated at Ann Arbor). Virginia, University of Virginia, University of, mainly at Charlottesville; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1819, opened 1825 with Thomas Jefferson as its rector. Jefferson also planned the organization and curriculum and designed its first buildings. Maryland, and Harvard University Harvard University, mainly at Cambridge, Mass., including Harvard College, the oldest American college. Harvard College Harvard College, originally for men, was founded in 1636 with a grant from the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. are disproving this notion. Low-income students now have the opportunity to attend these selective schools without racking up debt, thanks to new policies that are designed to take the financial burden off the student and his family. And the policies come none too soon, as more and more low-income students are getting squeezed out: At the 42 most selective state universities, 40 percent of this year's freshmen come from families making more than $100,000--a 32 percent increase over 1999, according to the Higher Education Research Institute The Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) serves as an interdisciplinary center for research, evaluation, information, policy studies, and research training in postsecondary education. (www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/heri.html), at UCLA. To make education more affordable to the non-affluent, U Maryland will no Longer ask students from families making less than $21,000 a year to take out loans. Instead, the school will offer scholarships to cover these students' tuition. UNC (Universal Naming Convention) A standard for identifying servers, printers and other resources in a network, which originated in the Unix community. A UNC path uses double slashes or backslashes to precede the name of the computer. , through its Carolina Covenant, will enable qualified low-income students to graduate debt-free if they work on campus 10 to 12 hours weekly in federal work-study jobs. "The program has two functions: to allow poor families not to incur debt, but also to pierce the veil Pierce the Veil (formerly known as Before Today) is an emo/post-hardcore rock band from San Diego. History Before Today formed in the fall of 1998, and had their first breakthrough in 2004 when Equal Vision Records released their debut, that seems to exist in low-income families that higher education is somehow unattainable," says Chancellor James Moeser of UNC. About 189 students of the current freshman class would have qualified for the Covenant, he says, which will be in full effect next fall. "As tuition goes up, we have a larger responsibility to make sure that the aid is there for these students."
Income distribution of the parents of freshman classes entering the
250 most selective colleges and universities.
1985 2000
Highest 25 percent 46.1% 54.99%
Middle 50 percent 40.9% 33.2%
Lowest 25 percent 13% 11.8%
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