CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Mar. 6--MIT announced today it will increase scholarship grants to students by 14 percent next year and reduce by $1,000 the amount that nearly all students are expected to provide through loans and term-time work.
Tuition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will be increased for 1998-99 by $950 to $24,050 (a 4.1% increase) while the undergraduate "term bill" - tuition, room, and board - will be $30,800 (a 3.9% increase, the smallest percentage increase since 1970).
The reduction is in the amount that students are expected to provide from MIT term-time work and loans before receiving scholarship assistance for the coming year. This is referred to as the student's "self-help" component. MIT bases financial aid on a determination of need which includes the student's self-help amount, the family contribution and an MIT scholarship based on the family's finances.
The self-help minimum amount will be $7,600, compared to $8,600 for 1997-98. MIT further reduces the self-help minimum requirement for students from families of very low income by as much as $3,500.
MIT President Charles M. Vest said, "I am particularly pleased that we have been able to reduce the 'self-help' requirement by $1,000. MIT remains steadfast in its commitment to need-blind admissions and need-based financial aid as the best way to allow the best and brightest young women and men to attend, regardless of their financial status."
With three-quarters of the 4,400 undergraduate students coming from public high schools, 56 percent of MIT undergraduates qualify for financial aid. The average financial aid package this year is $21,350, including $13,850 in MIT grants.
The parents of roughly 300 students, who have very limited income and assets, are not expected to pay anything for the student's education. About 200 of these students will need to borrow or earn --from work at MIT-- the self-help amount, $7,600. MIT provides scholarship funds for the remainder of their educational costs. For about 100 of these students, their economic circumstances are so limited that they will be expected to borrow or earn as little as $4,100.
The total cost to MIT of educating each undergraduate is estimated next year to be more than $46,000, nearly double the tuition.
MIT meets the remainder of the cost through earnings from the endowment and unrestricted gifts and grants. Tuition is one of three primary sources of revenue to MIT, the others being federal and industrial research funds and private support, primarily gifts and investment income.
The median annual income for families that qualified for aid this year is $53,500, with about 200 families that have incomes over $100,000 receiving grants because they had more than two or more children in college, or other circumstances that qualified them for need-based aid.
MIT-based scholarship grants for 1998-99 are projected to require expenditures of $30.8 million, 14 percent more than the estimated $27 million for the current year.
About 29 percent of MIT students and/or their parents pay the full amount of tuition, room, and board, MIT estimates. Some students (about 15 percent) from wealthier families who fail to qualify for financial aid from MIT nevertheless receive scholarships from sources outside of MIT. Such scholarships may be based on academic merit, geography, participation in ROTC, or other factors.
The 1998-99 figures were approved by the Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation and announced by President Vest at a meeting of the full Corporation.
