Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Dartmouth College, following moves by Harvard and Yale universities to make their schools more affordable, said students from families earning $75,000 or less won't have to pay tuition, starting in the next academic year.

Dartmouth, the smallest Ivy League institution, will also eliminate loans from aid packages, replacing them with grants, the Hanover, New Hampshire, school, said in a statement today. Besides the tuition breaks, students in the $75,000-or-under category may receive scholarships for room, board and other fees, the school said.

Harvard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Yale, in New Haven, Connecticut, have disclosed plans in the Past two months to raise spending on financial aid, helping students from families earning as much as $200,000 annually. Dartmouth's program will cover students from the 70 percent of U.S. families earning less than $75,000, according to the statement.

``Dartmouth's enhanced financial aid program will ensure that all our students are better able to take full advantage of the Dartmouth experience,'' President James Wright said in the statement. The aid program will help ``to keep Dartmouth affordable and to enroll the most talented students from around the world.''

Dartmouth spends $61 million annually for financial aid, up from $24.5 million 10 years ago. The new plan will cost an additional $10 million a year, the statement said. The school is conducting a $1.3 billion fund-raising campaign that will earmark $150 million for financial aid.

New Policy

Maria Laskaris, the dean of admissions and financial aid, said the school didn't previously have a standard income level for determining a tuition waiver. The new policy grew out of discussions among financial aid recipients and school officials over the past several months, she said.

``What we've done positions Dartmouth very well,'' said Laskaris, who became dean in July.

Harvard in December said it would cut costs by as much as 50 percent for families earning $120,000 to $180,000 a year. The school eliminated all costs for households with income of less than $60,000.

Yale followed last week by saying it would cut attendance costs by as much as half for its students with annual incomes as high as $120,000 and reduce expenses for those from households with incomes of as much as $200,000. Yale dropped parental contributions for families earning less than $60,000.

Eliminated Loans

Both schools eliminated loans from aid packages, joining more than 30 other institutions. Princeton University, in New Jersey, was the first Ivy League institution to adopt a no-loan policy.

About 48 percent of Dartmouth 4,100 undergraduates receive some form of need-based financial aid, the statement said. Tuition and fees are $34,965 and the total cost of one year of attendance is $45,483, according to the school's Web site.

Dartmouth has provided as much as $17,500 in loans for students receiving aid. Loans will be replaced by grants for first-year students who enroll later this year. Current students will have their loans cut by 50 percent for each of their remaining years at the school, the statement said.

About 13 percent of Dartmouth's undergraduates are the first from their families to attend college, and 14 percent receive Pell grants, the federal government assistance program for students from low-income families, the school said.

As part of the plan, Dartmouth said it would implement a need-blind admission process for all non-U.S. students, meaning it review applications without regard to the candidate's ability to pay. The school currently conducts need-blind reviews for applications from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The Ivy League consists of eight northeastern U.S. universities. Besides Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton and Yale, the group includes Brown, Columbia, Cornell and Pennsylvania.

To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Keenan in Boston at mkeenan6@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 22, 2008 19:22 EST