Ivy League universities, once regarded as only for the elite, are now offering students grants instead of just loans. Only Harvard University offers a full free ride, but others are providing more free money to students from low-income families, who are disproportionately black and Latino. 

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Princeton University was the first to offer the option of a "no-loan" Ivy League education in February 2001. The program issued grants to students from low-income families instead of loans. The average grant award for incoming freshmen is $31,187. Princeton's annual tuition is $43,980. Princeton's program is for anyone eligible for financial aid. The goal is to let students graduate debt-free, the university said.

In 2004, Harvard announced it would provide a totally free education for undergraduates from families that earn less than $60,000 and significantly reduce the $31,456 tuition price for those earning between $60,000 and $80,000. So far, Harvard is the only Ivy school to offer the full four years as a grant to these students.

The next year, Dartmouth College offered a financial-aid package for students whose family income was less than $30,000. Richard Levin, president of Yale University, announced that Yale would roll back the tuition for families earning less than $45,000 for the 2005--2006 school year.

"We want to attract the most promising students from all economic backgrounds to Yale," said Levin at the time. "These financial-aid enhancements will make Yale even more affordable to students in need of aid and underscore Yale's strong commitment to the broadest access."

Other Ivies are following suit. Both Brown and Cornell universities have launched similar programs that offer grant packages to students in need of financial assistance.

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This school year, Columbia University launched its program for students from families with incomes of less than $50,000. Columbia will replace students' standard loan package with additional grants for those families that qualify based on their total yearly income. 

During the 2007--2008 school year, the average cost of four-year private colleges jumped to $30,367, topping the $30,000 average mark but still inferior to the $38,878 average of the Ivy League schools.

Earlier this year, the University of Pennsylvania announced it will offer grants to low-income families, beginning next school year.  

The Ivies are not the only schools doing this. The trend is emerging among other choice universities as well. For example, Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., and Amherst College in Amherst, Mass., both introduced initiatives to eliminate loans from all financial-aid packages beginning as soon as next year. Atlanta's Emory University introduced the "Emory Advantage" program, which eliminates loans for undergraduate students whose families earn less than $50,000 a year, while capping total loan volume at $15,000 over four years for families with incomes of up to $100,000.

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