Lafayette is undertaking ambitious initiatives to provide greater access to qualified students regardless of their ability to pay while strengthening its student-centered learning environment by growing the faculty and lowering the student/faculty ratio.

President Daniel H. Weiss announced that the College is joining a small number of leading liberal arts colleges nationally in eliminating or reducing loans in the need-based financial-aid packages awarded to students from families with incomes of $100,000 or less over the next two years.

By making a Lafayette education available to a broader socioeconomic range of students, we will provide increased opportunities for productive exchanges within a diverse student body. It also fulfills an important social mission by furthering access to higher education for all.”

• Effective with the 2008-09 academic year, the College will eliminate loans from the need-based financial-aid packages awarded to students from families whose incomes are less than $50,000 and whose financial assets are typical of families with this annual income level. The College will meet these students’ demonstrated need with aid packages featuring only grants and a modest work-study award.
• Beginning in 2009-10, Lafayette will also limit the loan portions of need-based financial-aid packages awarded to students from families whose incomes are between $50,000 and $100,000 and whose financial assets are typical of families with this annual income level. Loans will be limited to $2,500 per year.

The aid policy pertains to both new and returning Lafayette students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. It builds upon the College’s commitment to meet the full demonstrated financial need of all students admitted under both early and regular decision who submit the required documents by the specified deadlines.

“It will benefit those who need it most, improving eligible students’ undergraduate experience and, potentially, their post-graduate outcomes by reducing their burden of part-time work while they are enrolled here and reducing their burden of indebtedness upon graduation,” Weiss says.

Lafayette College will continue to determine financial eligibility on a case-by-case basis through an individual review of a student’s application.

The formula for determining eligibility will remain the same as in past years.

Common requirements needed to be eligible for these initiatives are as follows:

• Be a US citizen or permanent resident
• Be admitted to the college under early or regular decision
• Complete the financial aid applications and requirements by the published deadlines
• Qualify for need based aid
• Meet the income and asset criteria required under the program (each year)
• Maintain full time enrollment and satisfactory academic progress.

Lafayette awards need-based grants or scholarships funded by the College to more than half of its students each year. Last year, 54 percent of students received College-funded grants and scholarships totaling $26.1 million. Next year this total will rise to more than $29 million.