Yale & Socioeconomic Diversity
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Yale is committed to ensuring that academically qualified students of all income levels have the opportunity to attend Yale College. This determination is reflected in Yale’s admission and financial aid policies, as well as its programs in outreach, recruitment, and student advising. First in the Nation with Need-Based Financial AidIn 1966, Yale was the first major university in the nation to make two commitments that very few institutions of higher education have been able to make or sustain to this day. For over forty years, the University has not taken into consideration whether a family can pay for a Yale education when we are deciding whether to make an offer of admission. Yale has also sustained for four decades a commitment to meet the full amount of determined financial need for every United States or Canadian citizen admitted here. In 2000, the University extended that same commitment to all non-Canadian international students. Yale provides scholarships, grants and loans only on the basis of equitably determined financial need, with no awards being made for scholastic merit, athletic ability or other factors. Today, over 41% of Yale’s undergraduates receive at least some need-based scholarship aid from the University itself, and an additional 22% receive financial assistance from other sources. The average need-based scholarship award at Yale is for $23,500, and Yale’s annual budget for financial aid to undergraduates is $60 million, which is double the $30 million that was expended in 2000. The average indebtedness at graduation for Yale students who use loans to help finance their educations has fallen from over $19,000 in 2002 to $13,300 in 2006, which is about a third less than the national average. Recent Improvements in Financial AidSince 1966, Yale’s financial aid program for undergraduates has always been among the very best in the world. Further, the University has consistently reviewed and improved its program over time. Over the past eight years, some of the most important changes have included these:
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• In 2000, Yale began allowing students to apply 100 percent of scholarships awarded by external organizations to reduce their self-help requirement. Previously, only 50 percent of outside funds were used to reduce self-help.
• Also in 2000, Yale extended its need-blind admissions policy and its financial aid policy of meeting full determined need to international students admitted to Yale College.
• Students on aid at Yale, as at all of its peer universities, are asked to take personal responsibility for a modest share of the cost of their education through a combination of term-time earnings, summer earnings, and low-cost loans. This student share in the cost of a Yale education was cut by an average of 35% in 2001, at an additional cost to the University of over $6 million annually.
• In 2005, Yale began providing undergraduates on financial aid with grant support for summer study and internships abroad. The amount of aid students receive depends on the level of aid they received during the academic year and the cost of their summer program. The maximum grant will cover the full cost of the summer international opportunity, plus the amount that students are expected to earn during the summer in support of their education ($2,350 in 2006), freeing participants of the need to earn money for school over the summer and thereby making it possible for every Yale undergraduate on financial aid to undertake an international experience.
• Also in 2005, Yale College acted in a dramatic way to address the financial contribution that lower–income parents are expected to make toward their children’s education. Families with total taxed and untaxed yearly incomes below $45,000 are no longer required to contribute any portion of the cost of their children’s education, while families with incomes between $45,000 and $60,000 have had their expected contribution reduced by a pro-rated amount.
• Yale’s extensive campus employment system provides jobs for every student on financial aid who wishes to earn income while attending school. Increases in the rate of pay over several years have brought the average to over $11.50 per hour, the highest level of compensation paid for student work among Yale’s peers.
Yale’s commitment to financial aid includes ongoing review of every aspect of its program, with a view to measuring the impact on both students and families of possible improvements or changes.
Outreach and Recruitment Programs
In addition to generous financial aid, Yale has committed significant resources to finding and recruiting the highest achieving low-income students in the nation.
• Regular admissions travel Over 20 professional admissions officers travel the country each spring, summer and fall to hold regional information sessions as well as individual school presentations. Publicity is widely disseminated to promote these opportunities to hear about Yale’s financial aid programs and outreach to low-income students.
• Outreach mailings and materials Yale uses a number of national services to identify high achieving low-income students, in order to present them with a series of mailings about Yale’s programs, opportunities and admissions process.
• Student Ambassador Program In 2005, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions began to use resources committed by the University to train and compensate current Yale students to act as ambassadors over their fall, spring and summer breaks in their home cities, making presentations about Yale admissions and financial aid to high schools with high proportions of low-income students. The student ambassadors have succeeded in increasing the applications from these schools by over 15%.
• Partnership with Questbridge The Office of Undergraduate Admissions is negotiating and expects to conclude an agreement for the 2007-08 admissions cycle to partner with Questbridge (www.questbridge.org), an innovative non-profit organization founded to match low-income students with some of the nation’s top universities. Questbridge has demonstrated over the past several years an extraordinary capability for identifying and assisting very high-achieving, low-income students across the nation understand their college options, make effective applications and indicate their college preferences.
• Fly-In Program for Bulldog Days For students actually admitted to Yale who demonstrate a relevant level of financial need, the University reimburses travel expenses to ensure that these students are able to attend the three-day April program at which admitted students can learn about Yale in-depth before they make a final matriculation decision.
Undergraduate Curriculum and Advising
Yale recognizes that many talented students from environments where there are limited resources face particular challenges when they encounter Yale’s curriculum. Yale’s support structures and strong sense of community work together to assist all admitted students with the transition to Yale’s demanding academic environment.
• Residential College System Advising On reaching Yale, all students are randomly assigned to one of the twelve residential colleges, each of them a self-contained community with its own courtyards, dining hall, library, performing spaces and many other facilities. Each of the residential colleges is also the headquarters of an academic advising system, using the resources of a residential college dean, affiliated faculty advisors, tutors and a corps of senior students who work with each year’s incoming freshmen. A new student at Yale is therefore engaged immediately with a number of sources for guidance, counsel and direct assistance.
• STARS Program The STARS (Science, Technology and Research Scholars) Program provides undergraduates with an integrated experience in research, course-based study, and the development of mentorship skills. It is open to all who would benefit from additional preparation for advanced work in any of Yale’s natural sciences and engineering majors, and we encourage the participation of students from traditionally underrepresented groups. More than 100 students each year participate in the academic year and summer STARS programs.
• Cultural Center Resources The University funds cultural centers staffed by deans whose focus is on sustaining a welcoming and understanding community of students who share an interest in diverse identities and backgrounds. For all students, including low-income students, who wish to explore connections to African-American, Latino, Asian or Native American cultures, the centers provide an additional layer of support services, community and advising.
Collaboration on National Challenges for Low-Income Students
If one thing has become clear from the current national focus on issues of low-income access, it is that problems and challenges for the vast majority of low-income students lie far beyond the capability of any individual institution to solve by acting alone.
In October of 2006, Yale joined a national student think tank, the Roosevelt Institution, to host a joint conference bringing together policy makers, university administrators and student activists from over 50 campuses to identify core problems and ways to address them at the national level.
• Financial Aid Policy Financial aid should be more widely available. At the federal level, key programs, such as Pell Grants for the lowest-income students, have been frozen for several years. Congress has also provided tax incentives useful to many families, but these have been less effective in helping low-income families. In addition, many colleges have not been increasing their need-based aid at the same pace as the merit-based aid that is often used to attract high achievers. Low-income students admitted to many colleges therefore face a “gap” in their ability to pay. In addition to sustaining and expanding our Yale’s own commitment to a financial aid program that is completely need-based and meets full need, we seek to participate, through the education of federal policy makers and in collaborative national associations, in efforts to expand the availability of federal aid for all low-income students.
• College Advising and College Summit, Inc. Beyond financial issues, critics of the present system have identified the desperate lack of college counseling services in public schools that serve large numbers of low-income students. While Yale seeks to engage in outreach to as many schools as possible with the message that Yale itself is accessible, we recognize the need to move beyond our outreach to potential Yale students only. Beginning in 2007, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions will partner with College Summit, Inc., an acclaimed nonprofit organization founded by Yale alumnus J. B. Schramm ’86 (www.collegesummit.org). College Summit works to improve the college advisory and planning capacity in school districts nationwide that are struggling to raise college enrollment rates, particularly among low-income students. We expect our collaboration with College Summit to help larger numbers of capable low-income students find their way to a wide variety of selective colleges and universities.
