Bowdoin applicants requested more financial assistance during this year's admissions cycle, but the increase was minimal; requests for aid from the admitted Class of 2013 increased only 2 percent from last year.
According to Director of Student Aid Steve Joyce, the Student Aid office had anticipated a slight rise in aid requests.
"You have to remember that financial aid for next year is based on 2008 income," he said. "The economic slide began in the second half of 2008, so some families were still managing OK in 2008."
"The concern is really how long this economic recession will last and what it will mean to the employment of Bowdoin families," he added.
Unemployment, as well as decreased income and assets, will undoubtedly limit many families' ability to pay Bowdoin's total cost, which averages $50,920 for the 2008-2009 academic year.
Joyce estimated that next year's financial aid budget will increase approximately 6 percent, in order to accomodate greater need.
Of the 642 accepted students who applied for financial aid, 370 were offered grants and 176 did not qualify. Joyce added that the figures were "not precise" at the time the College mailed letters last Thursday, because 96 aid applications remain incomplete. He predicted that most of the unfinished requests would qualify.
"We usually have enough data to tell if they can't," he said. "The question is whether they will complete or not. They may have decided they're more interested in another school and just won't follow up."
Joyce estimated that around 75 percent of these students would complete their applications.
This year, according to Joyce, 4 percent more students checked the box for interest in financial aid on the common application. Though it serves as just a tracking tool that allows the Student Aid office to follow up with students who indicate initial interest but do not apply, this figure signifies the overall applicant pool's higher interest in aid.
In keeping with past years, the incoming first-year class is expected to use about 28 percent of the total financial aid budget for 2009-2010.
The College offered $11 million to students accepted to the incoming Class of 2013, but Joyce said he expects the students who actually matriculate will only require about $6 million in aid.
"It's a guessing game," Joyce said. "So if they all come, we will blow the budget."
The College assesses financial need based mainly on four factors: family income; family assets, including cash, investments, properties, and businesses; the number of children in the family; and the number of children in college at the same time.
According to Joyce, slightly fewer middle-income and slightly more upper-middle-income families applied for aid this year.
He said he worried most about families in the middle-income bracket, who earn between $60,000 and $120,000.
"They are very price-sensitive; they hear Bowdoin costs $50,000 and won't apply at all and don't realize financial aid is available in significant amounts," he said.
According to Joyce, some upper-middle-income families, earning $120,000 and above, on the other hand, whose income and assets have been diminished by the recession, may have trouble paying bills because they have invested in expensive houses or private schools, for example.
"But we can't necessarily help families who have made those kind of choices," Joyce said.
"Students who have the highest need tend to matriculate at the highest rates, they have very generous grants and the amount expected from them is moderate," said Joyce. "Students in higher income bands tend to matriculate at slightly lower rates because more is expected of the family, and particularly in this economy, if the family is not confident they can manage payments over four years."
According to Joyce, the College seldom provides the entire cost for financial aid recipients. Almost all have a summer earnings expectation and a campus earnings expectation.
This article was corrected on April 3,2009.