Where the Income Line Falls

“New students” in the last column means something specific. Seven of the rows above, and two in the residency table below, took effect with the class that entered in fall 2026 and apply to every entering class after it. A senior applying this fall is covered. A student already on campus is not, because the school chose not to reach backward. Two schools went the other way and say so plainly: Smith states that as of 2026–27 every Smith undergraduate is eligible “regardless of when they first enrolled,” and Pittsburgh’s regional pledge reads “both newly admitted and currently enrolled students…may be eligible.” Those two read “Now.” Emory names fall 2026 as its start and never says whether a student already enrolled qualifies, so it sits with the new-student group until Emory says otherwise.

Middlebury publishes the number without the year. Its financial aid page reads “$0 Tuition for Families with Incomes Up To $175,000” and names no start date, which reads as though the policy is already in force. Middlebury’s own September 23, 2026 announcement says it begins with the first-year class of 2031, the class entering fall 2027, and does not cover students already enrolled. A current senior is covered. A current Middlebury sophomore is not. Get the aid office to confirm it in writing before you plan around it.

Dickinson pairs its tuition line with a no-loan line. Families at $125,000 or less pay no tuition starting with the class of 2030, the class that entered in fall 2026, and families at $75,000 or less get an aid package with no student loans in it. Dickinson is also unusually direct about who is shut out: its own page states that upperclass students who were not awarded the Dickinson Promise at admission are not eligible to receive it in later years.

Two schools publish a partial tier above their tuition line. Notre Dame covers at least half tuition for families up to $200,000, and excludes qualifying retirement accounts from the assets it reviews. DePauw covers at least half tuition up to $200,000 as well. Half tuition at a school that costs what these cost is not a small number, and it is the tier families in the donut hole almost never hear about.

Eight schools set a hard dollar limit on assets rather than saying “typical.” Smith caps household assets at $200,000. Vanderbilt at $250,000 for parents and $150,000 for the student. Michigan at $125,000. Cornell at $100,000 including home equity. Princeton’s estimator footnote says $175,000. Brown, Virginia and Texas A&M set their own. A number you can check against your own balance sheet is worth more than a word you have to interpret, so start with these when you are trying to find out where you really stand.

DePauw’s start year is settled, and it is fall 2026. Its press release said the tiers begin with students applying for 2027–28. Its financial aid page says “beginning with the class entering in Fall 2026.” Both are DePauw pages, and when a school’s aid office and its press office disagree, the aid office is the one that writes the award letter. Confirm it in writing anyway if DePauw is on your student’s list.

Duke covers tuition for Carolina families up to $150,000. A Charlotte family that assumed Duke was out of reach on price has been reading the sticker, not the policy. Colorado College is the odd one: instead of naming a dollar figure, it prices itself against the leading public universities in its region for households under $250,000.

Texas A&M words its line differently from everyone else. Its Aggie Assurance page reads “a family income and assets of $100,000 or less.” It does not say whether that is two limits or one combined figure, so ask the school before you count on it. Michigan is plainer: income of $125,000 or less and assets below $125,000, and the guarantee covers tuition and mandatory fees. The University of Texas at Austin measures its $100,000 line against adjusted gross income.

The New Hampshire Promise is the newest line on this page, and it starts in fall 2027. That is the class applying right now, which makes it immediately useful to a New Hampshire senior rather than something to file away. USNH publishes $100,000 total family income “with typical assets” for New Hampshire residents, and it covers tuition only. Its own figure is “100% tuition covered with federal, state, and institutional grant aid,” which is stacked aid rather than a tuition waiver, so the FAFSA is required and housing, meals and fees are still yours. Five institutions, not the three that press coverage named: UNH Durham, UNH Manchester, UNH College of Professional Studies Online, Keene State College and Plymouth State University. It reaches incoming first-year students, and transfer students who finished an associate degree at the Community College System of New Hampshire. A student already enrolled is not covered.

Two things to settle with New Hampshire before you count on it. The eligibility list ends with “A GPA of 2.7 or above from their prior school,” and the page never says whether that applies to incoming first-year students or only to the transfer students named in the bullet above it. For a first-year student the prior school is high school, which would make this the only grade condition on this page outside the Texas class-rank rules. Separately, the system page carries the policy and the campus aid pages have not caught up: UNH’s own admissions aid page still shows the Granite Guarantee and no income figure at all. Ask the campus, not the system, what your student will actually be offered.

UT System Promise+ is one policy across nine institutions, which is why it is one row. The nine are UT Arlington, UT Austin, UT Dallas, UT El Paso, UT Permian Basin, UT Rio Grande Valley, UT San Antonio, UT Tyler and Stephen F. Austin. Each campus administers its own version with its own requirements, so the terms differ campus to campus and the campus page governs, not the system page. UT Austin is listed separately above because it publishes its own line against adjusted gross income. The effective date is a gap, and I am not going to invent one. The Promise+ program page names no effective term at all. The UT System’s own announcement of the $100,000 threshold, dated November 20, 2024, says it begins “next fall,” and that fall has passed, so the threshold is in force. No UT System page names a specific entering class, and none says whether a student already enrolled is covered. Ask the campus.

Two UT System pages describe the same $100,000 line differently, and the difference matters. The Promise+ program page attaches the words “full coverage of tuition and fees” only to the original 2019 threshold of $65,000, and describes the 2024 change as “raising the eligibility threshold to include families earning up to $100,000” without ever saying what the $100,000 buys. The UT System’s November 20, 2024 announcement does say it: tuition and mandatory fees, for Texas residents at or below $100,000 adjusted gross income, enrolled full time. The announcement is the page that states the figure plainly, so it is the source for this row. Get the campus to put it in writing.

Two of these reach families the national lines leave out. Pittsburgh draws its $75,000 line against household adjusted gross income, combining the student’s and the parents’, and it applies at Pitt Bradford, Pitt Greensburg, Pitt Johnstown and the nursing program at Pitt Titusville, not the main Pittsburgh campus. It covers tuition only and says so plainly: no housing, no meals, no books, no supplies, no course fees. It is also one of only two policies on this page that a student already enrolled can claim, the other being Smith. North Texas covers tuition and mandatory course fees at $100,000, and adds two conditions the others do not: a Texas high school diploma, and either the top 25% of the class or Pell eligibility.