Nature & Nurture | Giving
Nicholas School commits to raise $5 million in endowed financial aid funds for professional degree students p.2
Tallying the costs
Graduate tuition at the Nicholas School now stands at $24,300. Add other
expenses, and it costs roughly $40,000 a year for two years to earn a
master’s degree at the school. With a few exceptions, the largest financial
aid award the Nicholas School can currently afford to offer is $12,000—less
than half the cost of tuition. More than 80 percent of the professional
degree students get some amount of merit-based assistance. Many students
also sign up for federal Stafford or Perkins loans, which could cover
another $21,500 to $24,500 at best. Work-study opportunities can help
cover slightly more.
“At these levels, even a student who gets the maximum financial aid award from us and the maximum federal loans will still have a gap of $4,000 a year that has to come from somewhere—and most students have a bigger gap,” Assistant Dean for Enrollment Services Cynthia Peters explains. “Students either have to have some resource in their family or get a private loan. Add to this the fact that, while these students will go on to fulfilling careers, they are not generally careers with high salaries, so the prospect of carrying a debt can be daunting.”
Reducing debt gives students more options
Joe Scarfo, assistant director for enrollment services, has worked with
students to plan how they are going to underwrite the cost of their professional
education. “Our students are willing to take on the additional debt incurred
by coming to Duke for their graduate education because they value the
education they receive here. They are willing to make that investment
in their professional futures, and no one has ever told us they regretted
their decision.”
But last year, one in four students who declined the Nicholas School’s offer of admission said they did so for financial reasons. Scarfo adds, “Even though many of the students who come to Duke walk away with a significant debt burden in addition to their degrees, they are willing to do so because of the professional potential their degree brings them. Unfortunately, we do lose very good students who make educational decisions based on financial aid. We’d like to be able to take that factor out of the equation so students could just look at where they can get the best education.”
“At the Nicholas School in particular, we have not always been on an even footing with other schools in terms of what we can offer financially to prospective students,” adds Berndt. “This campaign will help us balance the playing field. We certainly still have an edge in being Duke University, but we want to make sure that the best and brightest future environmentalists do not turn away from Duke because of financial restrictions.”
The success of this $5 million campaign will enable the Nicholas School to increase the dollar amount of the financial aid awards.
“The more the school can offset the cost of attending, the more attractive we become,” says Peters. “The good news is that students who commit to coming to the Nicholas School are definitely committed to improving and taking care of the environment. When you make a gift to create a fellowship endowment, you are supporting a person who will make a difference in the future of our environment, and in the lives of our children and grandchildren. And because endowments provide ongoing support, it won’t just be one person—it will be a succession of talented people who are dedicated to making the world better.”
Laura Ertel is a freelance writer based in Durham, N.C.