SUMMARY of LAST MEETING; The Com. met at noon on Mon., Nov 27 in the Rosenfield Center and virtually all members were present.

Jim Sumner provided both a staff and admission cycle update and then proceeded with a presentation of the College’s financial aid programs as suggested earlier in the semester by Professor Willis.
Sumner’s key points were;

1) An explanation of the terms “need-blind admission” and “meet full demonstrated financial need,” plus details of the coupling of these two concepts and merit aid,
2) An explanation of the College’s aid goals and a hand-out with details (e.g., fill the class, at least maintain academic quality, increase the number of US students of color, lower the discount rate/percentage of aided students, etc.),
3) An explanation of need based aid and how to apply for it (use of FAFSA and GC App. for Financial Aid and Scholarships, meeting the full demonstrated need of all admitted US students, preferential/differential aid packaging based on admission ranking, etc.),
4) An explanation of academic merit aid as driven by the admission rating, often combined with need-based aid, does not increase as the College’s price increases, role of tuition exchange and tuition remission, etc.,
5) And Sumner provided the following numbers; Class of 2010

14.3% receiving no College cash aid
$1.26 M spent on merit aid
47.8% discount rate
$8,515 average academic merit scholarship per student recipient
$5.3 M total cash aid to new students
$642 K total non-College cash aid
$872 total loans
$430 total campus work

Total aid to the 2006-07 student body; $21.1 M cash aid
$2.1 M non-College cash aid
$5 M self-help (loans and campus work)

The meeting adjourned after a lengthy Q & A session at 1:10 PM.

NEXT MEETING; This is a reminder that we will convene on Mon. 12/4/06 at noon in Room 203 of the Rosenfield Center as regularly/originally scheduled. Although no lunch is served you are very welcome to bring your lunch to the meeting.

Jim Sumner
Dean of Admission & Financial Aid
Grinnell College