Elite private school vows free tuition for middle-, low-income

In one of the most ambitious efforts yet to attract more middle- and lower-income students to an elite boarding school, St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H., is promising a free education to students whose families earn $65,000 or less a year.

The new policy follows efforts by elite universities, such as Harvard and Princeton, that guarantee free tuition to children of less affluent families, as long as they meet academic requirements. Tuition, room and board, and mandatory fees at St. Paul's next year will be about $38,000.

"Many families look at places like St. Paul's as a complete wipeout of any college savings they've accrued," said Michael G. Hirschfeld, vice rector for enrollment and communications at St. Paul's. "We don't want them to think that."

Only 17 of the 525 students at the school this year meet the criteria. The school, which has been working on the policy change for over a year, is already offering those students a free ride.

But St. Paul's, like many similar private schools, has a policy of rejecting lower-income students when financial aid budgets run out. St. Paul's rejected 12 such students last year.

Anticipating an increase in applications from lower-income students, St. Paul's is adding about $300,000 to its financial aid budget for next year, bringing the total to nearly $6 million.

The school hopes the policy will bolster the percentage of students receiving aid to 40 percent in the next few years, from 35 percent this year. The average financial aid award is $30,400, while the average family income of a student receiving aid is $105,700.

Like elite universities, many of the old-line New England boarding schools are in a bidding war for high-performing students from lower-income families. Schools including Milton Academy, Phillips Andover, and Phillips Exeter Academy are increasing fund-raising and tapping income from well-performing endowments to provide more aid.

Richard B. Commons , headmaster at Groton School, said that if St. Paul's policy proves successful, his school could follow. "I applaud St. Paul's for making it a policy, especially if it brings more talented kids to their school," Commons said.

Ted Landsmark, who received a full-tuition scholarship to St. Paul's in 1964 and was one of the first black students to graduate there, said the new policy is a big step toward assuring socioeconomic diversity. Currently, 20 percent of St. Paul's students are African-American, Latino, or Native American.

"Neither Deval Patrick or I would have been in a position to accomplish as much as we have if not for the opportunities provided to us by the educational institutions that recognized the obligation to ensure that people of diverse economic backgrounds have much to share and learn from one another," Landsmark said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Landsmark grew up in Harlem and is president of Boston Architectural Center; Patrick, raised on Chicago's South Side, attended Milton Academy and was elected governor this week.

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