Dr. Patricia Camp
Superintendent of Schools
pcamp@rahway.net
Kline Place
P.O. Box 1024
Rahway, NJ 07065
(732) 396-1000
SCHOOLS WITH NO LOAN POLICIES
About six dozen colleges and universities have adopted generous “no loans” financial aid
policies, where grants replace loans in the student’s financial aid package. In many cases, these
policies are limited to low-income students, such as students who qualify for the Federal Pell
Grant or whose family income falls below a particular income threshold (typically $40,000 to
$60,000).
Students who enroll at a “no loans” college can still borrow for their share of college costs. But,
the average debt at graduation will generally be much lower than at less generous colleges.
Princeton University, the school that started the “no loans” trend in 1998-1999, has an average
debt at graduation for Bachelor’s degree recipients that is less than $6,000. All of the Ivy League
institutions (Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Brown
and Dartmouth) have adopted “no loans” financial aid policies.
Most colleges with “no loans” financial aid policies aren’t truly eliminating all loans, as many of
these colleges require a minimum student contribution, which can include student loans and/or
part-time student employment. Some have instead adopted a low cap on the amount students
may borrow.
Colleges with “no loans” financial aid policies include:

Amherst College

Appalachian State University

Arizona State University

Boston University

Bowdoin College

Brown University

Bryan College (Tennessee)

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Colby College

College of Holy Cross (Worcester, MA)

College of William and Mary

Colorado State University-Pueblo

Columbia University

Connecticut College

Cornell University

Dartmouth College

Davidson College (North Carolina)

Duke University

Emory University

Fairfield University

Georgia Institute of Technology

Grinnell College

Harvard University

Haverford College

Indiana University Bloomington

Kenyon College

Lafayette College

Lamar University

Lehigh University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Miami University (Ohio)

Michigan State University

North Carolina State University

Northern Illinois University

Northwestern University

Oberlin College

Pomona College

Princeton University

Rice University

Sacred Heart University

Stanford University

Swarthmore College

Texas A&M University

Texas State University - San Marcos

Tufts University

University of Arizona

University of California at Berkeley

University of California System

University of Chicago

University of Florida

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of Louisville

University of Maryland, College Park

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

University of Minnesota System

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of Pennsylvania

University of Tennessee

University of Texas at El Paso

University of Toledo

University of Vermont

University of Virginia

University of Washington

Vanderbilt University

Vassar College

Washington and Lee

Washington University in St. Louis

Wellesley College

Wesleyan University

Williams College

Yale University
In addition to these colleges, there are about a dozen colleges that offer free tuition, including
the U.S. military academies. Some of these colleges do not allow their students to borrow from
federal or private student loan programs.
There are also several Promise Scholarship programs that help students avoid incurring
education debt.
Colleges that previously offered a no loans financial aid policy but subsequently reintroduced
loans in the financial aid packages of low-income students include:

Carleton College

Claremont McKenna College
Colleges that have scaled back the generosity of their no loans financial aid policies but which
continue to exclude loans from the financial aid packages of low-income students include:

Dartmouth College

Williams College

Yale University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cornell University-