Another approach to college financial aid

With all of the news of the wealthy colleges restructuring their financial aid programs, Blackburn College in Illinois is trying another approach. Unlike many of the colleges in the news recently, Blackburn has a very limited endowment on which to draw for financial aid packages. Their approach is to reduce their tuition and adopt a “no haggle” approach to financial aid. In other words, the stated price is what it costs and they will not negotiate based on a student’s receipt of an aid offer from another college.

Whether this is a good approach remains to be seen but I congratulate Blackburn on trying something different in their approach to helping students pay for college. It would be wonderful if all colleges had the resources of Harvard and Yale but unfortunately that is not the case. Many colleges are much closer to Blackburn than the wealthy colleges in the news of late and they need to also come up with improved financial aid options for new students.