Increased Financial Aid Initatives at the University of Chicago

To:  The University of Chicago

April 2, 2008


It is with great regret that I am writing this — a saddening situation has arisen: many students have been accepted, only to face the disappointment of being unable to attend due to financial reasons. Far too many of our friends and would-be classmates have been, and will continue to be forced to attend other schools as a result of the disappointing financial aid offers they received. For many of us, it has become impossible to even consider attending UChicago, as the debt that would be incurred from financing our educations is unfathomable. Surely one of the greatest institutions of higher learning in the world owes to itself and to its students to provide reasonable assistance to those in need. This is, after all, the objective of financial aid. It seems to many, however, that the Office of College Aid has greatly fallen short of expectations in this endeavor.


While we recognize and appreciate the work that the Office of College Aid has done and the effort that it is making, we feel that it has been unfair and unreasonable towards some of its students in both its evaluation of financial need and its distribution of aid. The Odyssey Scholarships, for instance, are by no means as helpful as they are advertised to be. The Odyssey Scholarship page on the University of Chicago website proclaims that, “Students whose families earn less than $60,000 a year will have 100% of their loans replaced with scholarships. Those whose families make between $60,000 and $75,000 will have 50% of their loans replaced.” Yet the Guide to Financial Aid for Students & Parents contradicts, “A student with family income that is less than or equal to $60,000 will receive a $5,225 Odyssey Scholarship. A student with family income that is greater than $60,000 but less than $75,001 will receive a $2,615 Odyssey Scholarship.” One must admit that even a $5,225 grant is only marginally helpful, considering that the projected cost of attendance for the 2008-2009 school year is approximately ten times that number. Moreover, many students have expressed that the financial aid committee was flawed in its evaluations of need. A prevalent complaint among both incoming and current students is that several factors that could not possibly be applied towards financing an education were considered in the evaluation of need, among these home equity and parental retirement savings. In addition, students from mid-income range families were particularly hurt by the decisions of the financial aid committee, as their family incomes are not low enough to qualify for need-based aid, yet are not high enough to both afford tuition and comfortably support a family.


We, the current and prospective students of the University of Chicago, ask that the Office of College Aid and the financial aid committee, in light of this information, reassess the definition of financial need and adjust its policies accordingly. Furthermore, in keeping with the trend that several schools of the University of Chicago’s caliber have set, we implore the University — which, with 6.2 billion dollars, has one of the largest endowments in the country — to implement improved financial aid initiatives to make a Chicago education truly accessible to all, regardless of financial situation.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Increased Financial Aid Initatives at the University of Chicago Petition to The University of Chicago was created by and written by Stephen Xue (massivexstephen@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.