There are many answers to the question “What is the price of a Williams education?” But the truest answer really is what you can afford to pay, up to half of what the College spends to provide it.

Williams’ operating spending in 2007-08 for roughly 2,000 students was around $200 million or $100,000 per student. The comprehensive fee (which covers tuition, room, board and activities) was $45,140.

In addition, Williams promises each family that can’t afford the comprehensive fee that the College will meet 100 percent of their demonstrated financial need with a combination of grants and academic-year jobs. (Until now, we also expected most aided students to borrow. More on that later.)

Nothing else in our economy is priced this way; perhaps that’s why many people have a hard time understanding this approach or believing it.

Williams provides aid to roughly half its families, up from around 40 percent 10 years ago. (Disclosure: This has included my family, with a daughter in ’06 and son in ’08.) Our aided families are spread across 95 percent of the U.S. income distribution. For this 95 percent of U.S. families, the median net price of a Williams education (comprehensive fee minus grant aid) has been going down for at least 10 years. In 1998 it was $13,835; this year it was $11,413, which in constant dollars would be $8,781 — a reduction of 37 percent. Because of changes described below, it’s about to go down further.

The reduction came about because we successfully recruited more low-income U.S. families and changed our financial aid policies. First, we reduced loan expectations significantly. Then we went need-blind for all international students — greatly expanding the number and quality of overseas applications and deepening the financial need of those admitted. Then, for most families in which home equity is the primary asset, we capped the amount of home equity used to calculate how much parents can afford to pay — first at 2.4 times family income and then 2 times.

Beginning with the next academic year, we’ll lower the net price for aided families even further by 1) eliminating loans from all financial aid packages and replacing them with enhanced grants, and 2) capping home equity at 1.2 times family income for families with assets typical for their income.

Why these changes now?

We review our financial aid policies almost continually. We do this in light of the College’s changing financial situation, our goal of further diversifying the student body and our competition with peer colleges and universities for the most talented students — since the more academically able our students are the more they contribute to each other’s education. We’re using these lenses to analyze possible further changes in financial aid.

All these moves cost money. The financial aid budget has leapt from just under $20 million five years ago to $38 million this coming year. That includes $1.8 million to eliminate loans and $800,000 for the latest lowering of the home equity cap.

Not every Williams family feels the College has made itself affordable to them. Like any system designed to deal with a wide range of circumstances, our financial aid process doesn’t fit all families perfectly. For instance, except in extreme circumstances, we expect non-custodial parents to help pay for their children’s education, and not all of those parents think they should. Also, the widely agreed-upon formula that determines how much of each family&$8217;s income should be protected for their basic costs of food and shelter hasn’t been reassessed for a long time. These are issues the College is looking into.

For most families, though, the system works well. Our most recent survey of all current parents asked: “Has your child’s experience ... been worth the impact on your family’s finances?” Only 2 percent of respondents said no.

The financial aid system, after decades of little change, has in recent years evolved quickly. Almost no one predicts with confidence what future changes will occur, since they’ll depend on such things as institutions’ relative financial strengths and the competition for strong, diverse student bodies.

We can be confident, though, that the College will do all it can to ensure that the answer to the question “What’s the price of a Williams education?” will continue to be the astounding but true “What you can afford to pay — up to half what it costs to provide.”  

By Jim Kolesar ’72, assistant to the president for public affairs at Williams College. A more complete explanation of how Williams sets its comprehensive fee and financial aid is contained in President Morty Schapiro’s letter in response to questions submitted by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee to all colleges and universities with endowments of more than $500 million. You can read his letter here: www.williams.edu/admin/news/releases/1604.

Illustrations by George Tuggle Jr.

*Fictional names.

**Cost of attendance includes tuition, fees, room, board, books, personal expenses and travel. Total family contribution includes money the student is expected to save from a summer job. To account for inflation and determine their equivalent value in 2008-09, multiply the 1998-99 dollar amounts by 1.3. Composites provided by Williams’ Office of Financial Aid.

Reprinted from the June 2008 Williams Alumni Review, Amy T. Lovett, editor. All rights reserved.

Related Williams links:
Admission Office
Financial Aid