How do students and families expect to cope with the high cost of college? Short of winning a lottery, the answer is financial aid. It's often the deciding factor in college choice. Cheyenne Cody Cardell '15—a talented artist and outstanding student from New Mexico—chose Kenyon over Parsons Paris School of Art and Design (in France) and six other private schools because of Kenyon's more generous financial aid offer. “Parsons offered her a great package, but it was not good enough,” said Ede Cardell, Cheyenne's mother.
Kenyon devoted 21.5 percent of its $102.9 million operating budget in 2010-11 to financial aid. About 60 percent of its students receive aid from the College and/or outside sources. At a time when federal and state support for higher education is falling, more students are qualifying for more aid. The average need-based grant per Kenyon student has been steadily increasing for more than a decade—and in 2009, in the wake of the September 2008 economic collapse, it took a leap of $4,000.
To meet increasing demand, Kenyon raised nearly $60 million in new endowment for financial aid during the recently completed campaign, doubling its financial-aid endowment. Campaign donors created sixty-seven new scholarship funds. But the sum still fell $11 million short of the campaign goal for endowed financial aid. “I was shocked that we didn't reach that goal,” said Jennifer Delahunty, dean of admissions and financial aid. “We're struggling to keep our commitments to students and families.”
Financial aid is the lifeblood of the College, essential in attracting the best and brightest students and ensuring a diverse student body (Cheyenne's biological father is Navajo). “Part of our social contract is to provide access to students of all backgrounds,” said Delahunty. “Without financial aid, Kenyon would not be a very interesting or educationally solid place.”
A financial aid package at Kenyon typically includes a combination of grants, scholarships, on-campus employment, and student-loan options for families. About 33 percent of the 468 first-year students admitted in the 2010-11 academic year received need-based aid from Kenyon. The average package totaled $36,562, including a $28,162 grant from the College that does not have to be repaid. “If an economically disadvantaged student gets admitted to Kenyon, our package is likely the best he or she will see,” Delahunty said.
That proved to be true for Cheyenne Cardell. Of the eight schools that accepted Cheyenne, only one—Bethany College in Kansas—matched Kenyon's offer. An aspiring graphic novel writer and artist, Cheyenne chose Kenyon for its excellent programs in both studio art and English, and has declared a double major in those fields. “Kenyon's was the first offer we received and we were shocked,” Mrs. Cardell said. “We had no idea a package could be that good. We were thrilled because Cheyenne would not be able to go to a four-year private school like Kenyon without it.”
The aid relieved years of anxiety for the family. Mrs. Cardell and her husband Michael—Cheyenne's stepfather—are artists who operate a bronze-casting foundry. They describe their socio-economic status as “lower middle class” and sometimes struggle to pay monthly bills. “I have been worried about paying for college for a long time,” Mrs. Cardell said. “Cheyenne is so dedicated; she has been keeping sketch books since she was seven years old, and she fills one every three months. It would have broken my heart to have her stay local or go to a community college. She needed something more
than that.”
Despite the recent increase in endowed scholarships, Kenyon still relies on tuition and fees to fund the bulk of its $22.1 million financial aid budget. The average annual cost for a student attending Kenyon in 2011-12 is $52,650, including $42,630 in tuition and fees.
While a few colleges are wealthy enough to have “need-blind” admissions policies—they do not consider the financial status of students and families when making admissions decisions—Kenyon must be “need-aware.” This means that, while offering generous aid packages to the best applicants, the College must also give some preference to full-pay students or students who need a little aid when it decides whom to admit. About 60 percent of first-year students admitted in 2010-11 received no need-based financial aid from the College. “To be perfectly honest with you, full-pay students are funding our financial aid budget and everything else,” Delahunty said. “If we did not have families willing to pay the full cost of
Kenyon, we wouldn't be able to offer such extraordinary quality in every corner of the College.”
Fortunately, Kenyon has been able to maintain its admissions standards for full-pay students. “Some schools are less selective than we are because they have to reach more for full-pay kids,” Delahunty said. “Kenyon is in a really good situation because we have full-pay kids who want to come here. The Kenyon brand is highly valued. How else do you explain the fact that we have one of the highest parent giving programs in the country? We have parents who are paying the full rate for their
children and are still donating to the College.”
John and Betsey Krause of Westerville, Ohio, were willing to buy the Kenyon brand. They turned down nearly a full ride for their daughter Anna '12 at Ohio Wesleyan University to pay full freight at Kenyon. Had it not been for their savings and Mrs. Krause's second income, the dual-career couple never would have been able to afford Kenyon without financial aid. “Education was a priority for us and we just felt Kenyon was a more appropriate choice for Anna,” Mrs. Krause said. “For her first two years in college, every penny I made on my job went to Kenyon, but we told ourselves it was only for four years.”
The Krauses expected to qualify for a “limited amount” of financial aid, but “we were naïve,” Mrs. Krause said. Their estimated family contribution (EFC), according to their daughter's Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), was too high. In Mrs. Krause's opinion, the FAFSA overestimated their EFC because it failed to account for substantial family expenses, such as assisted living for an elderly parent. Nevertheless, the Krauses accept Kenyon's “need-aware” admissions as an economic reality. “Kenyon needs a diversified student body and it has to be paid for,” Mrs. Krause said. “I don't find that discriminating.”
President S. Georgia Nugent has stated that the ability of students and families to
afford a Kenyon education is the major factor in preserving the financial health of the College. It cannot take full-pay students such as Anna Krause for granted. “We have to continually improve and stay attractive to those students who do not require financial aid,” Delahunty said.
Cuts in federal and state support for higher education have put mounting pressure on financial aid budgets, forcing colleges and universities to make up the shortfalls. Generally considered the foundation of financial aid for needy students, the federal Pell grant, with a maximum amount of $5,550 for the 2010-11 award year, continues to cover a decreasing percentage of college costs. Cancellation of the Ohio Student Choice Grant program and the uncertain future of the Ohio College Oppor-tunity Grant Program threaten to eliminate all state funding for private colleges. “The private colleges are educating tens of thousands of Ohio students at no expense to the taxpayers,” Delahunty said.
When comparing financial aid packages, more is not always better. Kenyon prides itself on the quality of its aid packages. “We don't over-loan students,” Delahunty said. Nationally, college seniors who graduated in 2009 carried an average of $24,000 in student-loan debt, according to the nonprofit organization Project on Student Debt. Kenyon's average loan indebtedness in 2009-10, the most recent figure available, was $19,934.
In mulling over offers from eight schools for her daughter Cheyenne, Mrs. Cardell said, “They all said they gave her their highest scholarship awards—the best packages they could—and they still didn't even cover half the costs. We would have had to borrow between $20,000 and $30,000, and we couldn't afford that.” Kenyon's package covered all but $8,000. After a local scholarship picked up the difference, the Cardells expect Cheyenne to graduate nearly debt-free. “We didn't want to saddle her with a big debt burden,” said Mrs. Cardell, citing one more reason why her daughter found the quaint charm of the Hill to be a better fit than the excitement and romance of the French capital.
—Dennis Fiely