Stanford University announced last week that students whose
parents have an income less than $100,000 will have tuition fully waived. In
addition, families with an income of less than $60,000 will no longer pay
housing costs.

This change to Stanford?s aid policy brings the
institution?s undergraduate financial aid program up to more than $114 million,
making it one of the largest programs offered in the nation, according to a
statement from the university.

Sara Goldrick-Rab, assistant professor of educational policy
studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin, said Stanford changed the
program to be more competitive.

?Stanford is just jumping on the bandwagon. ? They?re doing
it because Harvard, Princeton ? all those East Coast schools started doing it,?
Goldrick-Rab said. ?Offering this much aid makes them very competitive for the
really, really smart middle-class kids.?

Goldrick-Rab added this kind of program is not something
that UW or any other state-funded university could do.

According to Susan Fischer, UW director of financial aid,
there really is no way to compare a school like UW with Stanford.

?What?s different with Stanford is that they?re enormously
expensive,? Fischer said. ?For us, a state school, it costs about $18,000 for
tuition, room and board, and books. For them, tuition is $36,000. ? It?s just
so apples to oranges.?

According to Fischer, about 45 percent of UW students
receive financial aid, mostly through loans.

?We?d love to offer more, but frankly, the resources are
just not the same,? Fischer said. ?It?s OK to invest in a good education, ? but
I know it?s sometimes a real sacrifice for families.?

According to Goldrick-Rab, what Stanford is doing has large
societal implications and the money should go toward educating and motivating
the poorest of kids in the United States through outreach programs.

?We have seen from research that even when the middle-class
students struggle with the task of paying for school, they try, and usually
succeed in finding a way to make it work,? Goldrick-Rab said. ?However, the
poorer kids cannot find that way. They should be preparing those kids, and
right now, they?re just diluting their resources.?

Goldrick-Rab said she admired the idea of paying for housing
for families who make less than $60,000.

?Living costs are expensive, and I commend [Stanford] for
trying to cover that,? Goldrick-Rab said. ?We at Wisconsin are trying to make
housing more affordable and get more kids to stay in university housing.?

For Fischer, UW could also take steps toward being more
affordable for students.

?We don?t have the endowment Stanford has, so we?d love to
have more donors,? Fischer said. ?The federal and state money isn?t looking
good, so we need to convince people who have gone here, and who have a fondness
or a passion for the school to invest in our students.?

Goldrick-Rab and Fischer stressed the importance of making
higher education more affordable.

?If you?re smart enough to be here,? Fischer said, ?then you
deserve to be able to go here with a minimal amount of debt.?