| Schools unhurt by admissions change
Four prominent universities that ditched their early admissions programs have answered questions about whether the move would hurt their popularity. That answer is no. All are reporting record applications this year. Harvard, Princeton and the University of Virginia attracted widespread attention with announcements in 2006 that they would stop holding a separate, early round of admissions in the fall. They argued the practice contributes to anxiety and disadvantages students who need financial aid. This year, they began considering all applicants in a single pool with a January deadline. The University of Florida later made a similar announcement and moved to a single deadline of Nov. 1. Most selective schools kept some form of early admissions. Now, the results are in.
After Harvard, Yale boosts aid
Yale announced this week that it will change its undergraduate financial aid policy for all students this fall. The changes are meant to make college more affordable for middle and upper-income families and follow in the footsteps of a similar policy enacted by Harvard last December.
"We want all of our students to make the most of Yale academically and beyond without worrying about excessive work hours or debt," Yale president Richard Levin said in a press release. "Our new financial aid package makes this aspiration a reality."
At both Yale and Harvard, parents with annual incomes below $60,000 a year will not have to contribute toward their child's college education, and families with incomes from $60,000 to $120,000 will now pay between 1 and 10 percent of their incomes toward tuition.
Colleges uneasy about Harvard's deal on tuition
Two words to students hoping to get a break on college tuition now that Harvard and a handful of rivals have increased financial aid to middle-class students: Fat chance. Most colleges say they aren't loosening the purse strings just yet, although as financial-aid season approaches they are under intense pressure from parents to offer Harvard-style deals. Ursinus College's enrollment director, Richard DiFeliciantonio, said a parent already had called him to ask: "'If Harvard can do this for their kids, why can't you?' " The answer is obvious: Ursinus, like most colleges, isn't as filthy rich as Harvard, whose endowment of $35 billion is the largest in the nation. "Maybe 30 colleges in the country can even think about doing what Harvard is doing," said DiFeliciantonio, whose school has $150 million in its coffers.
Primaries post most agonizing choices
If it's any consolation, this is the hard part. When it comes time for the general election campaign, voters will be faced with a clear choice on the major issues. The primaries, meanwhile, are forcing us to figure out not just who the candidates are, but who we are as well. On what is now the issue of greatest concern, according to surveys -- the flagging economy -- Democrats and Republicans truly seem to live in different solar systems. All three leading Democratic contenders have set forth elaborate stimulus plans, all three have ideas for rescuing families caught in the subprime mortgage trap, and all three serve up their proposals with great heaping buckets of empathy. Message: They care. On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee does the empathy part but then shifts quickly to his weird idea about replacing the income tax with a consumption tax.
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