Dartmouth to eliminate loans for undergraduate students

HANOVER, N.H. (AP) — The president of Dartmouth College says the school is removing all federal and institutional loans from its undergraduate financial aid awards and replacing them with expanded scholarship grants, beginning with the current summer term.

Currently, Dartmouth undergraduates from families with an annual income of $125,000 or less who possess typical assets are offered need-based aid without a required loan component.

Dartmouth is now removing the loan requirement for undergraduates from families with annual income of more than $125,000 who receive need-based financial aid.

This will decrease the debt burden for hundreds of middle-income Dartmouth students and their families by an average of $22,000 over four years.

Dartmouth is joining Ivy League peers Brown University, Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University in adopting no-loan policies, The Dartmouth newspaper reported.