College Not to Copy Yale Plan For Aid to All Needy Freshmen

Harvard will not be able to duplicate Yale's pledge to give financial aid to any student in need who is admitted, Henry P. Briggs, Jr., Director of Freshman Scholarships, admitted yesterday.

Yale, when its $250 tuition increase goes into effect in September, 1964, will commit $400,000 a year for each of the next two years in an experimental effort to completely eliminate the group of students who are admitted but are unable to attend because they are refused necessary financial aid.

Jobs and Loans Help

Briggs emphasized, however, that "if one considers jobs and loans, we are in a position to help a great many of the students who are admitted and denied financial aid." Also, he added, students who are admitted without scholarships are eligible to apply for financial aid as upperclassmen.

Usually, Briggs estimates, about 150 applicants with financial need are admitted but refused gift aid. Many of these come, however, often with the assistance of funds from loans and term-time jobs.

In the average year, however, 30 or 40 students will refuse admission because they cannot afford the difference between the Harvard charges and the maximum available job and loan aid.

Briggs mentioned that a student's family often will not feel able to contribute the amount which the College believes it can afford. He suggested that once Yale were to make its pledge to offer financial aid to all needy applicants who were admitted, budgetary considerations might eventually force it to consider financial need when deciding whom to admit.