It's my understanding that the financial aid world has become more loan-based in the 20 years since then, too.
I think the opposite is true for the elite schools:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/09/pf/college/no-loan_financial_aid/index.htmNo loans! Major colleges pledge aid without debt
CNN
April 9, 2010
The economic crisis may have pared school endowments and state aid to education, but many colleges say they remain committed to fully funding students' financial need.
In fact, a group of schools is pledging to do it mostly through grants and work-study programs, and not with loans.
Yale, Harvard and the University of California network are among the at least 50 colleges planning to limit or remove loans from their financial aid packages, according to a report released this week by the Institute for College Access and Success. While 50 might not seem like a lot, their student bodies represent 8% of all four-year college students in the United States.
The "Project on Student Debt" report comes in the wake of announcements from both Williams College and Dartmouth that, due to diminished endowments, they will re-introduce loans to their financial aid packages starting in the 2011-2012 school year. Both schools previously had a "no-loan policy" in offering need-based financial aid.
Schools are trying to getting away from loans in an effort to avoid saddling graduates with debt that could limit their career options and start them in a deep financial hole. So the fact that so many big schools are staying with the program is seen as good news by the institute.
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