Aid Changes Raise Issue of Diversity at Colleges
"College and university endowments have recovered most of the losses they sustained during the recession, now that the economy has begun to grow. Yet as this year's high school seniors begin to fill out applications and aid forms, a number of prestigious smaller colleges are straining to meet students' financial needs," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. "To bridge the gap, some colleges have begun revising their financial aid formulas, raising concerns about how campus diversity -- both economic and racial -- might be affected. More students need financial aid than did a few years ago, they need much more of it on average, and colleges have fewer resources with which to provide it, though a major expansion of the federal Pell Grant program has made up some of the difference. "We're still seeing a tightening of the budgets, and colleges trying to find ways that they're still accessible but still stay afloat," said Gigi Jones, research director at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators."