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Students getting more aid
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March 3, 2000: 7:48 p.m. ET
Financial aid for school is easier to come by with the stock market surge
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - It's crunch time again for thousands of high school students across the country. What school do I go to this fall? How close to or far away from home do I want to be? For some, the even bigger question is: Can I afford to go to a school of my choice? It's more possible now than ever.
Credit the strong economy for chasing away the financial blues for many college-bound freshmen. With a red-hot stock market, more students are finding school scholarships and financial aid money easier to get.
Alyssia Smith, a Jonesboro, Georgia high school student, got a big surprise recently in the mail - a full four-year scholarship to Florida A and M University.
 "I hadn't looked into it, Florida A and M, at all, so I was very surprised. It came out of the blue," she said. Smith, a straight "A" student, has several universities interested in her and she's keeping her options open for another month.
But it's not just the academic achievers who are getting more aid. Endowment experts say universities are being more generous to average students as well. Today's high school students will be first beneficiaries of growing university endowments. Atlanta's Oglethrope University, for example, plans to quadruple its endowment to $125million from the current $30 million in five years.
After several years of tuition increases greater than the rate of inflation, colleges are now holding the line.
 In the five years from 1993 to 1998, college endowments in the United States increased an average of 18 percent annually. In 1995, they were worth a total of $175 billion. The figure today is close to $350 billion. But universities are traditionally conservative investors.
During that same period, the S&P 500 index jumped an average of 30 percent per year.
In addition to the current stock market-related appreciation, the personal wealth of many college alumni is growing, making it more likely that they'll donate to their alma mater.
In the end, experts say bigger university endowments would mean stable tuition costs and a better education. 
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