A couple of weeks ago we heard the news that Harvard Law is waiving third year tuition for law students who commit five years of work with a nonprofit or in public service.  Looks like another school is following Harvard’s path. 

This week, Tufts University announced a new program that will repay loans for students who enter nonprofit or public service work depending upon their loan burdens and and income levels.  The program also applies to Tufts alumni who are already working in public service jobs. Tufts alum and founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, made the program possible through the Omidyar-Tufts MicroFinance Fund.  It will be interesting to see if loan forgiveness programs for public service work becomes a trend with additional schools following suite. 

Over at Philanthropy Action, blogger Tim Ogden points out that today’s credit crunch affects not just homeowners but students who are financing their educations through loans, potentially leading to higher costs for private loans or even the inability to secure a loan at all. In today’s economy, loan forgiveness programs might be even more enticing to students and may be the boost they need to seek employment in nonprofits.  And this is the kind of boost we like to see.