Princeton University announced it will offer full-ride scholarships to all applicants from families with incomes below $100,000. Previously, Princeton only offered these scholarships to admitted applicants from families with incomes below $65,000.
Princeton will now offer full-ride scholarships to all admitted applicants from families earning less than $100,000.
To be clear, these full-ride scholarships will include tuition; room and board; and even the estimated $3,500 for books and other expenses. Indeed, this truly represents a “full-ride” scholarship. The estimated cost of attendance at Princeton for 2022-2023 is $79,540.
If your family income is north of $100,000 please don’t despair. Princeton has historically offered generous financial aid packages to many of these families and even stated they intend to continue to do so. They also noted they will continue offering financial aid packages to wealthier families with several children in college.
Princeton’s president Christopher Eisgruber explained, “We know that Princeton can achieve its research, teaching, and service goals only if it attracts the best talent from throughout society. With that in mind, we are further enhancing our need-based financial aid program.”
This move raises the bar on the $75,000 family income limit used by Harvard, Stanford, and Yale for their full-ride scholarships. We expect these other schools to match, if not top, Princeton’s $100,000 limit within the next year.
We expect Princeton to see a slight boost in applications as a result of this policy. How many of those additional applicants will be extremely competitive is questionable. However, the schools have been under increasing pressure to tap into their endowments and this policy will certainly address that concern as Princeton’s endowment was recently valued at $37.7 billion. Whether or not, this will allow Princeton to retain the top ranking in US News in the coming years will remain to be seen.
