As the market continues to vacillate and many students' financial situations worsen, the University has received an increasing number of applications for need-based financial aid from both returning and newly matriculating students.
Hopkins has stepped up its efforts to meet these increased financial demands through numerous channels, including freeing up more money to go toward student needs, expanding work study and student employment opportunities and creating a committee to oversee the financial aid funds throughout the recession.
According to Vincent Amoroso, director of Student Financial Services, there has been an 8 percent increase in financial aid demand from incoming freshman compared to last year. The percentage is similar to that of peer institutions, as the Yale Daily News reported a 9 percent increase from last year.
Amoroso also wrote that the financial aid going toward the incoming class is proportional to the amount being offered to other classes, with the freshman aid constituting 24 percent of the financial aid budget.
The University has also increased its financial aid budget since last year in an attempt to help students whose level of financial need may be changing in the coming year.
"The percentage increase in our baseline financial aid budget was 5.4 percent to a total of about $44,000,000," Amoroso wrote. "The University has made a commitment to returning students to continue to fund their financial aid eligibility, even if their level of need increases. We try and look at each family's unique situation when considering what type of help we might be able to offer them."
Junior Jamie MacGillis said that, for her, the financial aid office was very accommodating to her change in financial need.
"I filed an appeal in December 2008, since my family situation changed drastically in a very short amount of time. A week and a half later, I found out that I was getting a new package, and I was really surprised how fast and easy it was," she said.
"It was very straightforward. They said that they would get back with me as soon as possible, and for me, that meant being in contact with me within three hours of me handing it to the secretary."
According to Paula Burger, vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Education, while the University has lacked the resources to expand its financial aid offerings to the level of peer institutions, financial aid has remained "our top budgetary priority."
Burger noted that the University had adopted a financial aid approach that may be more conservative than other schools but potentially more realistic given the economy. She also noted the difficulty of striking the appropriate balance between internal cutbacks and external financial aid awards.
"Over the last two years, a number of our peer institutions have been able to take some quite impressive initiatives to enhance their aid packages for low income and also for middle income families, and we have not had the resources to do this." she wrote in an e-mail to the News-Letter.
"To have cut more (that is in addition to the hiring and salary freeze and the cuts in operating budgets), would have probably involved cutting programs or laying people off," she wrote. "Those steps simply create economic hardships for another set of folks, so we were not eager to do that."
She also wrote that while tuition is the main source of Hopkins's financial aid budget, the administration avoided a larger tuition increase than the 3.8 percent announced for next year, since such an increase would only increase the burden on another group of students and their families.
Burger noted that the University has considered other ways to help students manage paying for their education, in addition to supplementing their financial aid awards.
"We have looked at some things that we could do in the student accounts office to ease the burden of payment, such as tuition payment plans that spread out the payments over the year," she wrote. "And, we have asked that office to be sensitive to family situations even as we need to clear accounts."
In addition to the University's efforts to increase its financial aid for students who have needs, Burger noted that the University hoped to preserve student jobs, an additional source of income for many Hopkins undergraduates.
"As administrative offices have been cutting their operating budgets, we have tried hard to preserve student employment opportunities because, in the course of trying to cut expenses so that we can divert money to aid and keep the tuition level down, we don't want to deprive students of the work opportunities," she wrote.
For freshman Diane Hwang, while work study programs were helpful, the University could make the job search process easier.
"I feel like after they give you work study, they don't really help you find jobs," she said. "When I went to the Student Employment Center, they didn't help me get a job at all: you have to do it all yourself."
According to Burger, many students who are eligible for work study either do not take advantage of it or do not earn the maximum possible amount each semester. She anticipated an increase in the number of students pursuing work study opportunities in the coming year.
For returning students, financial aid awards are annually evaluated by means of a "needs analysis." According to Burger, current students who still demonstrate need will still receive aid: The system is not designed to reduce the awards of students who still require it.
"It is not a consideration to reduce aid awards if the needs analysis says that demonstrated need is there," she wrote.
Additionally, while Burger noted that there are no "blanket accommodations" such as grace periods for tuition payment, the University would work with families on a case-by-case basis to try and meet their needs.
According to Burger, the main problem is that it is difficult to predict the precise amount of money required to fund the financial aid packages until all the students have submitted their financial aid information and the analysis has been run. This can make predicting how much the total cost might increase for next year a challenge.
"The deans have set aside special reserve funds if the increase in the base budget is not sufficient to help returning students," she wrote. "It is possible that we'll get caught with a bill that is substantially larger than what we have anticipated, and we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it."
According to Amoroso, the size of the reserve fund is $1.5 million.
The University has also been doing its best to raise funds through philanthropic support from outside sources, such as alumni and individual donations, foundations, corporations and other sources.
Near the end of February, the University instituted a five percent cut on all administrative positions as well as a hiring freeze for new faculty and staff.
All of the students interviewed for the article expressed concerns regarding financial aid, but most remained hopeful that the University would provide the funds they needed to continue attending.
"I'm scared because my parents aren't making any more money than before, and the economy's down, and I have a little sister, so they can't really provide that much for me. They have to provide for her too, so I'm kind of worried about that," freshman Faradia Kernizan said.
"Now, the economy's down, and most people need money, and now people are getting worried, so more people are definitely going to do it."
Kernizan, a work study recipient, did not use her work study grant this year but said that next year she plans to do so.
Freshman Rachel Burns felt that "so many kids need [to work] just to have disposable income. Even just finding jobs on campus, I know a lot of kids have a hard time getting financial aid, and their parents are saying that 'We can't give you any disposable income' to buy groceries or have spending money."
Burns also mentioned that work study jobs could help students pay for books and other items that, for many students, financial aid does not cover.
Hwang, Burns and Kernizan all agreed that the number of students participating in work-study would be likely to increase next semester.
Freshman Priyank Pillai felt that the administration has been doing a good job staying aware of the needs of students and their families.
"I am concerned, I think the administration is doing a good job of being receptive to our concerns: I liked the fact that the Provost was speedy in addressing these matters through e-mail," he said.
"However, I think that all students will agree it's a big concern. We're in very troubling economic times, and one can hope that in recognition of this fact, the University will allow eligible students to remain at Hopkins without having to seriously reconsider their academic plans."
