In the last decade many of America’s exclusive, and wealthy, colleges moved away from student loans. One of these schools, Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, eliminated education debt in 2008.
Williams and schools like it created policies so that all students would graduate debt free. Basically the idea was that students and their families paid for they could and the difference between that and tuition would be covered by grants.
Well, Williams says never mind. In a press release yesterday Williams announced it was allowing education loans again:
We eliminated [student loans] for all aided students beginning in 2008-09. It now seems prudent to reintroduce modest loans for some aided students, beginning with the class that enters in the fall of 2011. No current students will be affected; neither will those who enter this fall.
Tuition at Williams is $39,250 a year.The Web site Campus Grotto recently indicated that the total cost of attending Williams College made it the 48th most expensive school in the United States of America.
In the last three years Williams College’s endowment dropped $500 million.
