Whoa.

Aid applications increased 16 percent for students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 21 percent at Boston University, 46 percent at Amherst College, and 40 percent at Williams. According to federal data, applications soared 65 percent at Harvard, which last year announced a major expansion of its financial aid program to families well up the income ladder.

The article gives two possible explanations:

This year, economic woes and turbulence in the private student loan market have made it harder for families to pay for college, prompting more to apply for financial aid and government-backed student loans, financial aid officers said.

and

Officials at some colleges, particularly elite private schools, said concerted efforts to attract low-income students have also prompted the increase.

“We have made it a priority to reach out to students who are bright but don’t have the resources,” said Joe Paul Case, Amherst College’s director of financial aid.

Even with the combination of those two factors, 46% seems like an exceptionally large jump.  I’ll bet some of it has to do with Amherst’s recent decision to eliminate all loans in favor of grants.  Any other ideas?  Maybe Amherst has started to suggest that every student fill out a FAFSA?  Maybe the FAFSA got easier?

These answers might somewhat be clarified when the numbers come out detailing whether, in fact, the percentage of students on financial aid increases as the number of applications increases.  An increase would suggest that the financial need among applicants is, in fact, greater this year.  No marked increase would suggest that other factors resulted in the application jump.