Northland College
PAE-10: Affordability and Access Programs

Northland sponsors an Upward Bound program that is part of the federal TRIO program. Northland’s Upward Bound serves 67 students from Ashland, Bayfield, Washburn, South Short, Northwestern, Drummond, Hayward, Mellen and Ladysmith, Wisconsin. Nine northern Wisconsin counties are included in the program’s service area (Ashland, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Iron, Rusk Sawyer, Vilas and Washburn).

Northland has a long-standing, steadfast commitment to making private higher education affordable to students from the economically challenged areas surrounding our location in Ashland, Wisconsin. The latest reflection of this commitment is an “Access Guarantee” announced this past March. The Access Guarantee assures that any new entering student at Northland from a family earning less than $100,000 with a “B” average or better in high school will receive academic scholarships at the point of being accepted that drop the price at Northland to the advertised price at the University of Wisconsin/Madison. Low income students, because their additional federal and state need-based aid is awarded on cost of attendance will see further greater advantage in attending Northland as compared to the University of Wisconsin/Madison. This Access Guarantee program provides a clearer way for prospective students and their parents to understand the often complex and confusing combinations of achievement and need-based aid flowing from institutions, private, state and federal sources. In the few months since its announcement, the program has received extensive coverage in Wisconsin media and very positive reception by high school counselors as well as prospective students and their families. No other private college we know of provides a guaranteed access this significant.

Our office of Student Life has a full-time director of Student Success.

Northland provides an extensive array of services to prepare students from all economic backgrounds for higher education. These include programs to identify students “at risk” academically upon entry to the college. Because of our small size, many of these programs result in individual meetings between incoming students and representatives from student life, counseling, advising, residence life and faculty.

Northland’s new “Access Guarantee” is a easy way to describe (for prospective students and their parents) an extensive array of institutional and donor-funded scholarships dedicated to low-income students. Those scholarships are literally too numerous to list here. These sources of funds are in addition to the standard array of federal and state need-based programs available to students attending any accredited college in the United States.

In addition to traditional financing and financial aid publications and programs found at most private colleges today, Northland has developed a series of helpful “tips” regarding affordability and financing which are sent to students via e-mail and reinforces in postcards to their homes (which are often read by interested parents). The college also participates in College Goal Sunday and will be working to expand its services to assist low-income families complete their FAFSA’s and obtain more information about how to successfully and affordably finance a private college education at Northland.

From the point of initial purchase of prospect lists, Northland is committed to outreach with low-income students. In addition to traditional student search activities, Northland’s admissions office also uses demographic information and research techniques to better identify low-income students. Unlike many colleges who have become “need sensitive” in their admissions decisions, Northland remains need blind. The College welcomes and actively seeks students from a wide range of economic circumstances. Because Northland was founded to serve the immediate area, which especially in recent times is economically challenged, the College maintains a strong commitment to innovative programs and messages, such as the Access Guarantee, to let low-income students and their families know that at Northland a private college can be affordable for them. Admissions also does specific outreach (both individual visits and associated programming) in primary and secondary student draw areas with large numbers of low-income students.

Last September 1, a new Vice President was hired to direct Northland’s Admissions and Financial Aid operations. This leadership resulted in the expanded financial aid commitments to low income students, “at risk” identification processes and targeted student search and research activities focused on low income students. Additional services and programs targeted to low income students will be added over the next 12-18 months as a part of these new leadership efforts. Examples include on-line financial aid webinars, expanded off-campus affordability programming with accepted students, cooperative outreach with other area postsecondary institutions, and targeted programming for specific low-income and disadvantaged populations such as large local American Indian communities.