Dickinson College is expanding its financial aid commitment with a major announcement aimed at easing concerns about college affordability for middle-income families. The Dickinson Promise will now cover tuition for domestic students from families earning up to $125,000 a year, beginning with the incoming class of 2030.

“I’m very excited about the Dickinson Promise,” said Seth Allen, Dickinson’s vice president of enrollment management and dean of admissions. “It’s Dickinson College’s commitment to families who earn up to $125,000 a year with reasonable assets that their tuition will be covered by the college.”

Allen emphasized that the promise builds on Dickinson’s already robust need-based financial aid system. “Dickinson has an incredibly strong need-based financial aid program,” he said. “For families who qualify for full funding, which could include tuition, fees, room, and board, we have that need-based financial aid available.”

He explained that the expanded promise has two core goals. “One is we’re trying to simplify the cost calculation for families who feel these days that higher education is unaffordable,” Allen said. “We’re boldly setting out that $125,000 or under families will not pay for tuition.”

The second component focuses on families with lower incomes. “For families who earn $75,000 or under, again with normal assets, we won’t require them to take out loans as part of their packages,” Allen said. “We’ll put Dickinson scholarship or Dickinson grant in there instead.”

The expansion follows strong feedback from the college community and donors. “We had always planned for a second phase of this,” Allen said. “We received such positive comments from alumni and donors and prospective students and their families that we thought, there’s no perfect time to roll out a second phase, so why don’t we do it now?”

The initiative is supported by a years-long scholarship campaign that raised $78 million. “The Dickinson Promise is the culmination of a successful scholarship campaign,” Allen said. “In crunching the numbers over the summer, we realized that we could enter phase two quickly.”

Allen said the timing was intentional. “Right before the holidays, we thought it was appropriate to get that good news out towards the end of the application cycle,” he said.

Rising sticker prices across higher education have made affordability a major concern for families, Allen noted. “Families are justifiably worried how they can afford higher education,” he said. “This last year was the year where colleges, for the first time, charged six figures, $100,000 or more.”

He added that many families misunderstand what private colleges actually cost. “Higher education has historically done a pretty poor job communicating that actually we’re much more affordable than the public generally believes,” Allen said. “Public sees the sticker price. They don’t see what the average cost is that families pay.”

The expanded promise is designed to address what Allen calls the “middle-income squeeze.” “This program directly addresses that,” he said. “Families can comfortably count on the fact that the cost of education at most is going to be those charges outside of tuition.”

Allen hopes the promise encourages more students to apply. “What we’re hoping is that financial considerations won’t present a barrier to students at least considering a Dickinson education,” he said. “We don’t want the consideration of what we charge to be an impediment in their considering the college.”

The program applies not only to first-year applicants but to transfer students as well. “The Dickinson Promise applies to transfer students as well,” Allen said.

Beyond affordability, Allen emphasized Dickinson’s commitment to the liberal arts. “The liberal arts are America’s unique form of higher education,” he said. “We believe it builds confidence, esteem, leadership skills, and those timeless skills will stay with you for the rest of your life.”

As Dickinson prepares for future classes, Allen said the goal is simple. “We want students to look really deeply and see that we very well may have the programs that are a good fit for them,” he said, “and that we are in fact affordable.”