A handful of schools have instituted policies that ensure that low income students have no loans in their financial aid packages. These are also referred to as "free tuition" programs for low income students.
Typically low income is defined as the bottom quintile by family income, such as family incomes below about $40,000, by Pell Grant eligibility, or families with incomes below 200% of the poverty line.
Types of No-Loans Policies
The policies fall into four main types:
- No loans. These policies eliminate loans from the financial aid package of low income students. In Princeton's case, the loans are eliminated from the aid packages of all students, not just low income students. Other schools with no loan policies for low income students include Rice University, UNC Chapel Hill, University of Virginia, and the University of Pennsylvania.
- Loan caps. These policies institute a low cap on student loans for low-income students. Examples of schools with such policies include Brown University.