Dartmouth College will be removing federal and institutional loans from its undergrad financial aid awards and replacing them with expanded scholarship grants, starting this summer term, the Associated Press reported.
More than 65 families supported the Dartmouth fundraising effort campaign goal to eliminate loan requirements from the school’s undergrad financial aid awards, committing more than $80 million in gifts.
As it stands now, Dartmouth undergrads from families with an annual income of $125,000 or less are offered need-based aid without a required loan component. Dartmouth is now cutting the loan component for undergrads from families with annual income of more than $125,000 who receive need-based financial aid.
This will decrease debt burden for hundreds of middle-income Dartmouth students and their families by an average of $22,000 over four years, the school said in a news release Monday.
With this change, Dartmouth will be joining other Ivy League schools Brown University, Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University in adopting no-loan policies.
