Stanford University announced last week that students whose parents have an income less than $100,000 will have tuition fully waived. In addition, families with an income of less than $60,000 will no longer pay housing costs.

This change to Stanford�s aid policy brings the institution�s undergraduate financial aid program up to more than $114 million, making it one of the largest programs offered in the nation, according to a statement from the university.

Sara Goldrick-Rab, assistant professor of educational policy studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin, said Stanford changed the program to be more competitive.

�Stanford is just jumping on the bandwagon. � They�re doing it because Harvard, Princeton � all those East Coast schools started doing it,� Goldrick-Rab said. �Offering this much aid makes them very competitive for the really, really smart middle-class kids.�

Goldrick-Rab added this kind of program is not something that UW or any other state-funded university could do.

According to Susan Fischer, UW director of financial aid, there really is no way to compare a school like UW with Stanford.

�What�s different with Stanford is that they�re enormously expensive,� Fischer said. �For us, a state school, it costs about $18,000 for tuition, room and board, and books. For them, tuition is $36,000. � It�s just so apples to oranges.�

According to Fischer, about 45 percent of UW students receive financial aid, mostly through loans.

�We�d love to offer more, but frankly, the resources are just not the same,� Fischer said. �It�s OK to invest in a good education, � but I know it�s sometimes a real sacrifice for families.�

According to Goldrick-Rab, what Stanford is doing has large societal implications and the money should go toward educating and motivating the poorest of kids in the United States through outreach programs.

�We have seen from research that even when the middle-class students struggle with the task of paying for school, they try, and usually succeed in finding a way to make it work,� Goldrick-Rab said. �However, the poorer kids cannot find that way. They should be preparing those kids, and right now, they�re just diluting their resources.�

Goldrick-Rab said she admired the idea of paying for housing for families who make less than $60,000.

�Living costs are expensive, and I commend [Stanford] for trying to cover that,� Goldrick-Rab said. �We at Wisconsin are trying to make housing more affordable and get more kids to stay in university housing.�

For Fischer, UW could also take steps toward being more affordable for students.

�We don�t have the endowment Stanford has, so we�d love to have more donors,� Fischer said. �The federal and state money isn�t looking good, so we need to convince people who have gone here, and who have a fondness or a passion for the school to invest in our students.�

Goldrick-Rab and Fischer stressed the importance of making higher education more affordable.

�If you�re smart enough to be here,� Fischer said, �then you deserve to be able to go here with a minimal amount of debt.�