Dartmouth College has joined five of its Ivy League peers in announcing during class reunion weekend that student loans will be replaced with scholarship grants. The move, which will go into effect this summer, will especially benefit students from middle-income families. Previously, Dartmouth had eliminated loans for students from families with earnings up to $125,000 a year. It’s anticipated that this will reduce the average debt of these middle-income students by about $22,000 per year. Right now, among Dartmouth’s student body, about 450 students would be impacted.

As The Dartmouth Senior Staff report for The Dartmouth in a piece entitled “Dartmouth to eliminate loans for undergraduate students,” “Starting June 23 — the first day of the summer term — the College will transition to a no-loan financial aid policy for undergraduates, College President Phil Hanlon announced in a reunion address. Hanlon said that the shift was prompted by over $120 million in scholarship donations to the endowment through The Call to Lead campaign since September 1, including an anonymous $25 million gift. ‘Our gratitude for these extraordinary acts of generosity knows no bounds,’ Hanlon said in his announcement.”

We salute Dartmouth for joining five of its Ivy League peers in eliminating student loans and we hereby call on Cornell University and Princeton University to join in on the party. Indeed, we anticipate these two institutions will announce similar policies in the months to come.