Hopping on the Affordability Bandwagon

Inside Higher Ed

Liam Knox

November 25, 2024

For students worried about the cost of attending a selective college, last week was a bonanza.

On Tuesday, the University of Pennsylvania and Brandeis University both announced they were expanding their financial aid programs to a broader range of students. The next day, Carnegie Mellon, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the entire University of Texas system did the same. The plans will make more lower- and middle-income students eligible for free tuition, with some raising the family income threshold to $200,000.

Those five institutions join dozens of others that have rolled out similar initiatives this year: Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Colby College, Duke, Columbia, Richmond and the Universities of Virginia and North Carolina, to name just a handful. So what’s behind the flurry of affordability initiatives?

The announcements have come pouring in at a time when public resentment of elite institutions has reached a fever pitch, doubts about the value of college are at a historic high and the impact of the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling on demographics is becoming clear. And after last year’s bungled FAFSA rollout, families are warier than ever of financial aid promises.

“We know what’s going on with confidence in higher education, and one element of that is increasing cost and increasing debt levels,” said James Milliken, chancellor of the UT system. “This is about sending a clear message that college is affordable. That’s what we’re doing, that’s what MIT and Brandeis are doing, and I think that’s really important.”

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