An exciting announcement out of Stanford University today: Stanford will offer free tuition for families who earn less than $125,000 per year, as well as other generous financial aid offers. This incredible financial aid initiative will make it possible for many more students to have a financial chance at going to one of the nation’s best universities—though there is still the battle to get that acceptance letter.
Here is a quick roundup of some of the details of the announcement:
- Free tuition to students whose family earns less than $125,000 per year—and if they make less than $65,000 per year, they will receive free room and board as well.
- Students are expected to pay $5,000 toward college costs from their summer earnings and working part-time during the academic year. Lucky for students, there is no rule against parents helping to cover this cost.
- This announcement is an expansion of a previous Stanford financial aid policy, which previously applied only to students from families making less than $100,000 per year.
It is also important to note that another restriction demands that families also have less than $300,000 worth of assets, excluding retirement accounts.
Stanford can make this type of financial aid program possible by being one of the world’s richest institutions of higher learning, boasting an endowment of roughly $21 billion.
It is great that a prestigious school like Stanford is making education easier to achieve for middle-class and lower-class families. In this day and age where there is a great deal of competition to get a job, it is pleasant to see that the playing field is becoming more even—even if it is just at the academic level.
What do you think about Stanford’s financial aid changes? Does this make it more likely that you would like to attend Stanford?
