Prompted by the UOC's 300-student canvass and forum last week on financial aid reform, the Yale Herald does a feature on the impact of policy on people:

Financial aid detracts from everything Yale has to offer," a Davenport sophomore said. A first-generation college student and daughter of immigrants, with roots more country-rural than Connecticut-suburban, she appreciates the benefits of a Yale education which she would otherwise be unable to afford. But she has found that the same aid that granted her this privilege also constricts her Yale experience. Due to long hours spent on her work-study job, she often feels pressured and unable to participate in the greater Yale community in the same way non-financial aid recipients do. She complains that work-study prevents her from taking more demanding classes like Organic Chemistry and from pursuing a medical career. There seems to be a consensus among financial-aid recipients at Yale that while Yale's aid program is generous, other elite universities may be doing a better job at lightening the burden on students. One student said that upon hearing that Princeton had erased student loans, he wanted to quit Yale and move to New Jersey. As the Davenport sophomore put it, "We are definitely grateful and feel really lucky to afford to come here, but at the same time there's room for improvement."

From the YDN write-up of the forum:

"We think Yale can do better to accommodate people with financial needs," Maslin said. "There are issues of class that exist, and we want to figure out ways to approach that and what potential policy solutions could be." The University's representatives acknowledged the broad complexity of student concerns, and Associate Vice President for Student Financial and Administrative Services Ernst Huff said a newly resurrected Yale committee, the Subcommittee on Admissions and Financial Aid, will create an arena for further discussion... Rebecca Livengood '07 questioned the financial aid representatives about their office's efforts to attract a more diverse applicant pool. Livengood cited the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative. Under the initiative, Harvard no longer requires families with incomes of less than $40,000 to contribute to their children's tuition costs. But Smith said that it is difficult to measure the realistic effects of Harvard's policy. "It was a smart move, but we don't know how effective it is in terms of attracting students and university costs," Smith said. Huff said the University may consider enacting a similar policy in the future, but they would first need to do a cost-benefit analysis. According to Harvard's Web site, about 70 percent of Harvard students receive some sort of financial aid. About 40 percent of Yale students receive financial aid, according to the Yale Admissions Web site.