Like other Ivy League institutions, Yale University offers generous financial aid packages for low-income students who are able to gain admission. In fact, admitted students who come from families with incomes below $65,000 are not asked to make any monetary contribution to the cost of their Yale education.
But the $50,000 or more sticker shock of an Ivy League education may scare away many students who are not aware of the financial aid packages that are available. In fact, research published earlier this year by Caroline Hoxby, the Scott and Donya Bommer Professor of Economics at Stanford University, found that many of the nation’s most talented minority students simply do not apply to our nation’s leading colleges and universities because they are unaware of the financial aid available to them.
Yale University recently sent out a postcard mailing to 16,000 high-achieving students who are about to begin their senior year in high school. The mailing, shown below, invites prospective students to log on to the Yale admissions website where they can calculate the real cost of attending Yale based on their family’s income. A second mailing will be sent out later this summer instructing these students how to apply to Yale and how to obtain a fee waiver for their application.
