This hasn’t been a good week for Sallie Mae - not only did Harvard do away with loans, but now schools like Pomona and Swathmore are joining in and eliminating student loans, and replacing them with scholarships:

“The elimination of loans from financial aid packages is another step in Pomona’s concerted efforts to ensure that a Pomona College education remains accessible to and supportive of all qualified students,” notes Patricia Coye, director of financial aid. [ Pomona College ]

Over at Swathmore students were very excited by the announcement:

The new policy “gives our graduates the opportunity to take an internship or go to Teach for America or to graduate school, to a social service project or the Peace Corps,” Bock added. “It gives them opportunities that were only open to some students before this.”

Students were elated at the announcement. “Holy moley, that’s great,” Swarthmore sophomore Nancy Chu said after learning that she wouldn’t have college loans in her junior and senior years.

Chu, 19, from northern California, said her loans last year were just a few thousand dollars. She wasn’t sure of the exact amount of her loans this school year.

“As a student it’s definitely a load off my mind,” said the English major, who expects to go to graduate school and take out more loans. [ The Philadelphia Inquirer]