Costly boarding schools offer more aid

EXETER, N.H. -- Trying to reverse a perception that they're only for the well-to-do, several old-line New England boarding schools are offering more aid and pledging to stop rejecting students for admission because of family income.

The schools -- the highly selective Phillips Exeter, Milton Academy, Phillips Andover, Groton, and St. Paul's in Concord, N.H. -- are increasing fund-raising and tapping income from high-performing endowments to provide more financial aid. The schools are following in the footsteps of elite universities, such as Harvard and Princeton, that have guaranteed free tuition to students of certain income levels.

Phillips Exeter Academy, for example, has increased its aid by 18 percent for the next school year so it could admit all students regardless of income. If the school can continue to afford to foot the bill for its neediest students, administrators vow to remove a section on the admissions application that warns students that qualifying for financial aid can decrease chances for admission. They say they consider the next few years a test of the new approach at the school, where tuition, room, and board next year is $35,000.

''We are not discriminating against financial aid students this year in the admissions process," said Rick Mahoney, Phillip Exeter's director of financial aid. ''We couldn't say that before in years past."

The boarding schools, like elite colleges, essentially are in a bidding war for high-performing students from lower-income families. Last year, Exeter officials noticed fewer needy students accepting offers and attributed it to other private schools' increase in financial aid packages. In response, the school increased its financial aid budget to $10 million for next year, up from $8.5 million.

About 38 percent of the approximately 1,000 students at Phillips Exeter next year will be on financial aid, up from 35 percent this year. Phillips Exeter, a grades 9 to 12 school, also eliminated student loans in favor of grants, something Milton Academy did a few years ago. Officials at several schools said that on average, they each reject about a dozen students a year because of lack of aid.

The students who don't get admitted because financial aid ran out sometimes are the ones the schools sought aggressively from rural and urban areas, hoping to diversify their student body racially and economically. At Phillips Exeter, 22 percent of the school's approximately 1,000 students are Asian; 6 percent are black; and 6 percent are Hispanic.

''We don't want to be a school that caters to wealthy families in the Northeast," said David Beim, a Phillips Exeter trustee. ''We want to reach out to families across the country who come from different backgrounds."

In some cases, students, depending on their family income, might need as little as $5,000 or as much as a full grant for tuition, room, and board. The students are placed on a waiting list. Some get in if money becomes available, but many others never learn whether it was academic credentials or a lack of finances that prevented their admission. Some admission officers don't tell students if financial aid played a role in the decision, believing that it would be like rubbing salt in a wound.

But other admission officers say students deserve to know that they had the academic credentials to get in. Admission is typically based on grades, interviews, essays, letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities, and entrance exam scores.

''These kids are extraordinary kids. They would have every reason to believe they would be admitted," said Michael Hirschfeld, director of admissions at St. Paul's School.

In the late 1990s, St. Paul's adopted a policy of having enough money for financial aid so it could offer admission to all students regardless of need, but abandoned it a few years later. It could not afford to support the growing number of lower-income applicants with top-notch academic records. Hirschfeld said that the school's top priority is to raise enough money to reinstate the policy and that the school is on the cusp of having enough money. Last year, St. Paul's had enough money to offer admission to all students, regardless of need.

''We want a complete meritocracy," Hirschfeld said.

Two years ago, trustees at Phillips Andover increased money for financial aid so that 40 percent of students could receive assistance. The school's financial aid budget has grown from $9.7 million for fiscal year 2005 to $11.7 million for next year. The goal is to have enough money so it can offer admission to all students, Andover officials said.

Ted Landsmark, president of Boston Architectural Center, who in 1964 was one of the first black students to graduate from St. Paul's, said he thought the changes in financial aid were a good idea.

''It's very important for prep schools to have diverse student populations in order to assure the kinds of leaders who emerge from those schools are exposed to a wide variety of people," said Landsmark, who grew up in Harlem and attended St. Paul's on a full-tuition scholarship.

Boarding school officials say they want to raise enough funds to provide more than tuition, room, and board for lower-income students so they also can help them fit in with the wealthier students. Phillips Exeter, for instance, sometimes takes students shopping for bedspreads, posters, and other items to help their dormitory rooms blend in with others.

Lauren Kim, a junior at Phillips Exeter and daughter of a single mother, said the school also paid for her flute lessons, bought her a graphic calculator, and gave her $1,000 toward a computer.

The changes to financial aid, particularly the replacement of loans with grants, will help further, said Kim, of Studio City, Calif.

''After graduation, I won't have to pay back two grand," said Kim, who was planning to take out a student loan for next year until she learned that Exeter replaced its loan program with grants. ''It's nice to have that sense of security."

James Vaznis can be reached at jvaznis@globe.com.