The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester announced yesterday it will waive tuition for students from the city of Worcester whose families earn less than $50,000 a year, in an effort to attract more low-income and working-class students to the private Catholic school.
College administrators said the initiative, which is unusual for a small, liberal arts college, will make it possible for more city students to attend the school and help families realize that lack of money is not an inevitable barrier to a private college.
"Many low-income families in Worcester do not even consider a private-college education for their children because they assume it is out of reach," said the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, president of Holy Cross. "This lets them know we're committed to meeting their financial need."
More than 30 graduates of Worcester public schools enrolled in Holy Cross last year, many of them immigrants and first-generation college students who have flourished, McFarland said.
Annual tuition at the 2,700-student school is almost $35,000. The tuition break, which will cover all four years of school, begins this fall and will not benefit current students. Room and board, which costs about $10,000, will not be included, but students can quality for additional aid.
The median household income in Worcester is $42,000.
The announcement follows several financial aid initiatives in recent weeks from elite colleges that seek to make college more affordable for middle- and upper-middle class families.
Holy Cross said it wanted to focus its limited resources on helping the neediest local families.
"It is our philosophy that it's more important to provide accessibility to working-class families than to attract students who can pay their own way," McFarland said.
McFarland said the college already ignores applicants' financial status during the admissions process and offers extensive financial aid to families with little money. Almost 60 percent of Holy Cross students receive some kind of financial aid.
Waiving tuition altogether, however, "enhances and simplifies" otherwise complex financial aid packages, he said.
Worcester educators and students embraced the tuition break as a strong motivator for students who often think that selective private colleges are out of reach.
"Finances have always been the elephant in the room when we talk to students about college," said Stephen E. Mills, deputy superintendent of Worcester public schools, where two-thirds of students receive free or reduced lunches. "Now we'll be able to look them in the eye and tell any kid that if they get into Holy Cross, it's absolutely realistic they can go."
The initiative mirrors nearby Clark University's offer of free tuition to admitted students who live in Main South, a low-income neighborhood near the campus.
Holy Cross has a $658 million endowment, which surged more than $100 million during the past fiscal year. But the college will pay for the bulk of the initiative, which will cost an estimated $1.4 million a year, out of its operating budget.
National financial aid specialists applauded the initiative but noted that most colleges lack the resources for such a step. Low-income students instead need more generous Pell Grants, which have not kept up with tuition increases, and higher limits on subsidized loans, said Justin Draeger, a spokesman for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
Charlyn Valencia, a senior at University Park Campus School in Worcester who has applied to Holy Cross, said she was thrilled by the news. Her father, a mechanic, and her mother, a social worker, are worried about how to pay for college, and she plans to go to whatever school winds up costing the least.
"This is a great opportunity for all kids in Worcester," she said. "This could open so many doors for so many people."
