When rising Elon sophomore Janeeta Smith was considering which college to attend, she said tuition played a big part in her decision as a low income and first generation student.

Smith, a North Carolina native, said she depends on her scholarships to attend Elon University. Now low-income students from North and South Carolina have the chance to attend certain colleges without thinking about tuition. 

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill announced July 7 that free tuition will be provided to families at the start of the 2024-25 school year who make less than $80,000 each year. This follows the university’s loss in the Supreme Court, where it — along with every higher education institution in the country — is now prohibited from considering race in their admission decisions.

“It just shows that universities and colleges are considering how these factors can contribute to why someone does not receive education and not many people can receive a degree, receive a high quality education because of their financial state and because of their social class,” Smith said. “Bridging that gap is definitely very important, so I definitely feel that is making waves and starting conversations about things like that.”

UNC followed Duke University, which announced June 20 it would cover tuition for North and South Carolina students whose families make less than $150,000 annually. Duke will also provide assistance with housing, meals and course materials if a students’ family makes less than $65,000. This policy will be implemented in the approaching 2023-24 school year.

Rising Elon sophomore Selma Maric also said tuition was important in her college decision, and originally could not go to Elon until it offered more scholarship support. Maric, also a first generation student, said if Duke or UNC’s policies were in place when she was deciding, it would have greatly influenced her college decision.

Duke’s tuition, not including any additional fees, is $63,450 for the 2023-24 year, while UNC boasts an in-state tuition of $7,020 and out-of-state tuition of $37,360. Elon will charge $44,029 in tuition, without fees, for the upcoming 2023-24 year. 

Maric said she thinks these initiatives to make college education more accessible is a good step in the right direction.

“I think there's numerous things that a university can do in order to open their doors up to all communities and especially to disadvantaged communities,” Maric said. “I think this is a great step.”

Associate Provost for inclusive excellence Naeemah Clark said it is not surprising UNC implemented this policy, as many other states have similar programs for their in-state students. Clark specifically mentioned how Florida’s lottery pays for Floridian students to attend state schools for free. Yet, she said it is novel for a private university such as Duke to implement a policy like this because of its large endowment of $12.1 billion, according to Duke’s website.

Clark also said that while Elon may not have the endowment for these tuition programs like Duke, the university does offer scholarships to help low-income students — such as how all the profits from the Inn at Elon go toward scholarships. 

“We do make a concerted effort to make sure that Elon is available to folks who maybe wouldn't have thought Elon would have been affordable to them otherwise,” Clark said. “I had breakfast with students who are first generation college students … and we talked about their experiences as students who were benefiting from the Inn at Elon scholarship, like it’s a big deal.”

Currently, 52% of Duke’s undergraduate students pay less than full tuition, according to its financial aid website. In the 2021-22 year, 62% of UNC students had financial aid, according to the UNC financial aid website. Financial aid numbers should be increasing in the coming years because of the large number of students from North Carolina attending in-state schools, with Duke reporting over 1,000 in-state students and UNC over 3,000.

Comparatively, Elon has over 33% of students with financial aid, while roughly 21% of undergraduate students are from North Carolina, according to the university's common data set.

 While Maric said she understands Elon may not have the funds to implement this specific initiative, she thinks it would be a great way to increase diversity on campus.

“I think that it's something that you want to do to take a step in increasing their numbers of diversity, especially with the affirmative action case that the Supreme Court just ruled in,” Maric said.

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Ryan Kupperman contributed to the reporting of this story.