America's Ivy League universities are fee-driven, with significant funding supplements from private donors. These provide the source for the aid packages that enable these private universities to offer financial support to meet fees and accommodation of up to $35,000 (Pounds 23,4000) a year for poorer students.
Under the need-blind admissions policy, students are admitted irrespective of their ability to pay. The universities then meet demonstrated needs through a variety of mechanisms, including academic and athletic and other types of special scholarship based on demonstrated need.
At Yale, almost 50 per cent of undergraduates qualify for financial assistance through scholarships, grants, low-interest educational loans and term-time employment. Much of this is in the form of federal Pell grants and Stafford loans, which are available only to United States citizens.
In 1996-97, Yale distributed $29 million in university-funded scholarships for undergraduates, averaging more than $13,000 with some in excess of $25,000. New initiatives are expected to add $2 million to the college's financial-aid budget for 1998-99, rising to $3 million for 2001-2002.
Term-time employment is offered in libraries, laboratories and offices at rates from $6.85 to $8.90 an hour with a recommended upper limit of 12 hours a week. The federal Work-Study programme offers a limited number of off-campus jobs with nonprofit organisations.
All students are eligible for low-interest loans of up to $2,625 for freshmen, $3,500 for sophomores, and $5,500 for juniors and seniors to an aggregate maximum of $23,000 long-term. Until the early 1990s, most US universities practised so-called "need-blind" admissions, where they accepted or rejected students solely on academic potential without considering financial need.
Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other highly endowed universities are wealthy enough to have continued need-blind admission. But many others have begun denying admission to otherwise-qualified students who could not afford tuition, including such prestigious institutions as Tufts, Brown and Cornell universities.
Even the code of ethics of the National Association of College Admissions Counselors was changed last autumn. Instead of requiring its members to ignore financial need when considering applicants, it now suggests that they do so. The switch follows a survey that found dwindling numbers of schools continued to practice need-blind admission.
Joyce Smith, the association's executive director, said: "This issue almost tore our association apart. But the admissions people basically said they don't have control over the budgets that are allocated to them for financial aid.
"They're trying to make the best out of what they have. We could not, as a professional association, endorse a code of ethics over a process a lot of our members said they had little control over."