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Money no longer a barrier to Yale

By Wang Zhuoqiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-04 07:50

Yale University has extended its need-based financial-aid package to international students for the first time on a nondiscriminatory basis.

"Today no Chinese students were shut out of Yale because of our need-for-funds package," said Yale President Richard Levin. "If they qualify for admissions to the university, they will have funding to study. This has completely changed the profile of Chinese and other international students we have been able to accept."

The tuition fee for Yale University is about $50,000. Families earning less than $60,000 annually will not make any contribution toward the cost of a child's education. In 2008, the average annual salary of an urban resident in China was 29,229 yuan ($4,175).

Today 70 percent of international students are getting full financial aid packages. Almost 100 percent of Chinese students are such recipients.

But it is very difficult to gain admission into the university. The admission rate from China is 3 or 4 percent.

"It's very small," Levin said.

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Yale's endowment declined 25 percent this year. But none of the core student programs or faculty members were affected by the university's adjustment measures.

When asked what to tell graduates who are struggling to find a job, Levin quoted the speech he gave to this year's graduates at Yale.

"This is a blessing and a silver lining in the cloud is to follow your passion more than follow the money," he said.