Financial Aid

Barnard’s Director of Financial Aid Alison Rabil, BC ’86, will step down from her position at the College in mid-October, Dean Dorothy Denburg announced in an e-mail.
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After a year of reforms in admissions and financial-aid policies throughout academia, Columbia appears to have kept pace with its Ivy League peers.

So if you ever wonder why so many of those “rich” international students are always striving to graduate in three years or just earlier than the rest of the class, it may not be the mere fact that we tend to be overachievers by nature. We might have been forced to become this way.

Congress and the Department of Education are commendably focused on ensuring that students and their families have access to federally backed student loans this upcoming academic year. But, even with access to these federally backed student loans (hopefully) and other forms of student aid, a subset of students and their parents still need to take out private student loans to help cover all costs of higher education.

The idea of a college education for degree-seeking adults was revolutionary at its inception, and it remains so today. But the past dictates the present, at least in financial aid.

This week's letters discuss issues ranging from Love Your Body Week to financial aid to the 1968 protests. To write a letter to the editor, email Opinion@columbiaspectator.com.

In the wake of similar reforms by other Ivy League schools, Columbia announced a package of broad financial-aid policy enhancements Tuesday morning. The much-anticipated reforms will convert all “need-based loans” to grants for students in Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and CC and SEAS students from families with annual incomes below $60,000 will not have to pay for any aspect of college—tuition, room, or board.

Though Columbia’s announcement regretfully received little media attention in the wake of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s lurid scandal, it promises real benefits for students who rely on financial aid.

In Tuesday's announcement, Columbia University seems to incorporate aspects of each of the other recent Ivy League financial-aid reforms, charting an ambitious—and expensive—path forward.

In the wake of similar reforms by other Ivy League schools, Columbia announced a package of broad financial-aid policy enhancements Tuesday morning.