According to a Sept. 28 announcement from the college’s Office of Marketing & Communications, the Occidental Affordability Promise aims to make an Occidental education financially accessible. According to the college’s website, students applying whose family income falls under $150,000 with typical assets — cash savings, home equity and primary investments — will have their full tuition covered, and students whose family income falls between $150,000 and $250,000 will have at least half of their tuition covered.
According to a message from President Tom Stritikus Oct. 1, the total family income eligible for the Affordability Promise was increased this year to $150,000 to reflect the college’s commitment to social mobility.
According to Vice President of Enrollment Maricela Martinez, Occidental introduced the Affordability Promise for students who were accepted this semester. Martinez said via email that the program was formed last year with input from the board of trustees, the president and the offices of Admission and Financial Aid.
“Our commitment to meeting 100 percent of demonstrated need has not changed,” Martinez said via email. “The Affordability Promise will broaden our support and increase our financial aid budget for more students.”
Director of Financial Aid Sheryl Reinschmidt said via email that the Affordability Promise helps potential applicants and their families to better understand the costs of an Occidental education. Reinschmidt said students named the cost of attendance as a top reason for deciding against applying or matriculating to Occidental.
“The cost of higher education is a growing concern for most families,” Reinschmidt said via email. “We introduced the Affordability Promise last year to expand our commitment to financial aid and help prospective students and their families more easily understand what an Oxy education may cost.”
Vice President of Institutional Advancement Melissa Mount said via email that the office of Institutional Advancement plans and implements alumni and parent fundraising campaigns that support scholarships and financial aid assistance available at Occidental. Mount said a combination of endowed scholarships and ongoing funding supports a portion of the Affordability Promise.
“Resources from the Oxy Fund and other expendable financial aid funds are fully disbursed each year to help cover a portion of the Affordability Promise,” Mount said via email. “Continued fundraising is essential to sustaining the program and ensuring ongoing support for students.”
Mount said the office of Institutional Advancement sets goals for the Oxy Fund to continue funding scholarships.
“We aim to raise $5 million for the Oxy Fund in the 2026-27 Fiscal Year; this fund is part of the college’s operations budget,” Mount said via email. “We also aim to increase scholarship endowments year over year to support these efforts.”
According to Reinschmidt, the Affordability Promise has not been extended to current students.
“Most of our current students are already receiving comparable financial aid to what we are offering new students through the Affordability Promise,” Reinschmidt said via email. “Whenever possible, we do our best to apply the policies for each incoming class to our current students. However, our financial aid budget does not always allow for us to expand our new initiatives to all students.”
Reinschmidt said the impact of the Affordability Promise is dependent on the incoming class size and demonstrated financial need. According to the college’s website, admitted students who do not qualify for the Affordability Promise will still receive financial aid meeting their demonstrated financial need.
“Our financial aid budget this year is $59 million,” Reinschmidt said via email. “It is hard to know how much impact it will have until next year’s first-year and transfer students have committed.”
Reinschmidt said other scholarships, like the Early Decision Commitment Scholarship and the Minimum GPA Scholarship, work to encourage applications from interested students. According to the Occidental Commitment Scholarships page, all students admitted in Early Decision rounds are entitled to a $20,000 minimum annual scholarship renewable for four years, totalling $80,000. The Commitment Scholarship increased from $15,000 in the previous year.
“Our research showed that the ‘cost of attendance’ was one of the biggest barriers keeping students from applying Early Decision,” Reinschmidt said via email. “Since these students have indicated that Oxy is their first-choice school, we hope that the Commitment Scholarship will help students and their families feel more confident in applying Early Decision.”
Reinschmidt said the Minimum GPA Scholarship has already been awarded to accepted students in previous years.
“For years, we have awarded merit scholarships to students with an unweighted 3.6 GPA or higher,” Reinschmidt said via email. “Last year, we began advertising it to prospective students and their families — again, to help students and families better understand their financial options.”
Martinez said initiatives like the Affordability Promise aim to support a broad range of future applicants and their families.
“We hope this new initiative will give families greater clarity on the cost of an Oxy education and encourage more students who may have thought Oxy was financially out of reach to consider applying as a first-year or transfer applicant,” Martinez said via email.
Contact Vivian Pei at vpei@oxy.edu
