Penn President Amy Gutmann recently announced the following initiative:

Today we are announcing a far reaching new financial aid initiative that will eliminate loans for financially eligible undergraduate students regardless of family income, making it possible for students from a broad range of economic backgrounds to graduate debt-free.

Penn's new program is the latest step in our efforts to widen access for students from all economic backgrounds, by expanding our no-loan program from low and lower-middle income families to include middle and upper-middle income families.

This new program will begin in September 2008, and include all eligible undergraduates, not just entering freshmen. Effective that year, students with calculated family incomes under $100,000 will receive loan-free aid packages, while families above that level will receive a 10 percent reduction in need-based loans.

By fall 2009, all undergraduate students eligible for financial aid will receive loan-free aid packages, regardless of family income level.

This is a transformative moment for higher education and for Penn. Making a Penn education accessible to students from the broadest array of economic backgrounds possible is fundamental to our mission. Our nation's young scholars should not be deterred from pursuing their dreams for fear of being a financial burden to their families.

This doesn't necessarily mean that Penn will now necessarily be a springboard for the poor and working classes into the upper strata -- admissions are likely to become only more competitive, and people with established wealth will always have a leg up in that game. And if your FAFSA-calculated "ability to pay" is still more than your family is actually able/willing to pay, then this doesn't do much for you.

But ten years ago, when I applied to college from Michigan, I'd received letters from Penn. I had a 4.0 grade point average, was a National Merit Scholar, and Penn was interested in me as a football recruit. My parents made just over $50K between them, and my older brother had already turned down admission to DePaul because of the amount he'd have to take out in loans wasn't justified by the math teacher's salary he'd make when finished. I wound up throwing my applications to Penn (and Northwestern and Georgetown and a handful of other schools) in the trash, and ended up taking a full scholarship to Michigan State, before eventually coming to Penn as a PhD student.

If this trend in college financial aid continues -- and I would love to see schools like Temple or Penn State create a similar program down the income range, say for students whose families make $50K or less -- then there is no reason why today's best students have to put those applications in the trash, why they can't attend Philadelphia's best institutions no matter where they live or what their families make. And despite all of the other flaws in our educational system, that is a really amazing change.