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Northwestern University to Resolve Student Loan Debt?

Northwestern University to Resolve Student Loan Debt?
3/22/2016
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Susan Dutca-Lovell

Beginning this fall, Northwestern University will offer grant and scholarships to combat student debt for qualifying students. As is the case with many colleges and universities, Northwestern's tuition hikes over the past several years have not helped the issue of crippling student debt. Based on their endowment and continued contributions from alums, it would certainly seem that Northwestern could offer considerably more financial assistance than they are at present. While Northwestern is about to start offering more free money to incoming students, capping the potential loans at $20K, we believe there is a solution to keep students from burying themselves in student loan debt: scholarships.

It took six years of student organizing and meeting with administrators to begin the process of reviewing and changing the financial aid policy to a no-loan program that grants 100 percent coverage of student financial aid; implements a cap for loans on current students whose debt is at $20,000; and offers full university financial aid for undocumented students. Students who reach $20,000 in loans will have additional aid covered in grants, but there's a catch. If you are at $30,000, you're not getting a check, according to Northwestern Vice President of Media Relations, Alan Cubbage. The new program will start 10 new initiatives for both undergraduate and graduate students, with a special emphasis on undocumented students who graduate from U.S. high schools, low-income, and first-generation students, according to the Chicago Tribune.

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