"Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore will get the largest-ever individual donation to a single university - $1.8 billion. It's from an alumnus, the former New York City mayor and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg. He announced the donation yesterday and said the money is for financial aid for undergraduates from low- and middle-income families," NPR reports. The following is a transcript of the story that aired on Monday.

"Elissa Nadworny is following the story and joins us now. Hi, Elissa.

ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.

SHAPIRO: How is Johns Hopkins going to use this money in admissions? How is it going to change the university's policies?

NADWORNY: So the money will allow Johns Hopkins to focus solely on merit during its undergrad admissions process. It's actually been doing that for the past several years, but this will allow it to have the financial backing to do it permanently. So the school won't have to take a student's financial need into consideration when offering admissions. They're also committed to meeting full need for students, so that includes eliminating loans from their financial aid packages and replacing those loans with scholarships that students won't need to pay back.

SHAPIRO: Explain why this school is so focused and Bloomberg is so focused on need-blind admissions.

NADWORNY: So the goal is to increase economic diversity on campus.

SHAPIRO: And economic diversity is important because...

NADWORNY: Well, schools see value in diversity of thought, so having students from different backgrounds helps make that happen in the classroom and on campus. And elite schools have struggled to diversify and bring in kids from lower-income families. So right now on elite college campuses, low-income students represent just 3 percent of enrollment.

SHAPIRO: Is there any kind of a forecast of what that 3 percent would become if need-blind admissions were a reality?

NADWORNY: You know, there isn't a forecast, but we do know that for schools that have gone need-blind with full financial backing, yes, it's increased diversity on campus. Hamilton College in upstate New York is a great example. But need-blind policies only work if there's money to back it up, so it's not a realistic option for a lot of schools with low endowments or small financial aid packages.

I spoke with Justin Draeger. He's the president of the National Association of the Student Financial Aid Administrators, and he's explaining how this fits into kind of the usefulness of how to encourage low-income students on campus.

JUSTIN DRAEGER: But this is really just one tool in the toolbox of things that a school would use to try to diversify their students. It's not going to be the panacea or the silver bullet that's going to automatically diversify your population."

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Publication Date: 11/21/2018