Fat chance.

Most colleges say they aren't loosening the purse strings just yet, although as financial-aid season approaches they are under intense pressure from parents to offer Harvard-style deals.

Ursinus College's enrollment director, Richard DiFeliciantonio, said a parent already had called him to ask: "'If Harvard can do this for their kids, why can't you?' "

The answer is obvious: Ursinus, like most colleges, isn't as filthy rich as Harvard, whose endowment of $35 billion is the largest in the nation.

"Maybe 30 colleges in the country can even think about doing what Harvard is doing," said DiFeliciantonio, whose school has $150 million in its coffers.

Last month, Harvard rocked the college landscape when it guaranteed that families earning between $120,000 and $180,000 would pay only 10 percent of their income for a year's tuition, room and board, which is about $46,000.

The surprising move comes at a time of record applications, rising college costs, and concern over increased student debt.

The ripple spread to other selective colleges, including the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Swarthmore and Haverford, which pledged to reduce or eliminate student loans. Others say they are looking at awarding fewer merit scholarships and giving more aid to those in financial need.

But the vast majority of institutions say Harvard's move puts them at a disadvantage, forcing them to raise prices so they can afford to dispense more financial aid.

"Where are these other institutions that don't have the endowments of Harvard or Yale going to get the money to offer more financial aid?" asked William Durden, president of Dickinson College. "Raise tuition."

"Dickinson is not an unwealthy institution, but only the super wealthy can even think of this, and I think that's somewhat troubling," he said.

Schools say they are well aware that skyrocketing tuition continues to outpace inflation, and that students are borrowing more to pay for it.

The cost of college rose more than 6 percent this year, with tuition, room and board costing an average of $13,589 for public schools and $32,307 for private schools, according to the College Board.

To pay for that, students are going deeper into debt. The average student loan for graduating seniors more than doubled between 1993 and 2006, from $9,250 to $19,646, according to the Project on Student Debt, an advocacy organization.

Nearly two-thirds of students at four-year colleges borrowed money, compared with fewer than half a decade ago, the group said.

Jonathan Avidan of Langhorne pays $700 a month on $94,000 in private and federal student loans that he needed to pay for his last two years at Boston University after his father's business collapsed. Now working for a financial investment company, he said the "impact of these loans has completely changed my life."

"If I didn't have these exorbitant student loans, my wife and I would be able to afford a house rather than a one-bedroom apartment. I'd have money to put away for retirement," said Avidan, 25, who testified before a Senate committee on private lenders in June.

College affordability has become a big issue in Congress, with Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R., Iowa), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, pushing for colleges to be required to spend more of their endowments to keep their tax-exempt status. And a House Education and Labor Committee-approved bill would make the public aware of colleges that raise tuition significantly.

"Most people can't afford to pay for a four-year education without borrowing, and there is no guaranteed pot of gold at the end," said Lauren Asher, associate director of the Project on Student Debt.

Colleges that can't afford to cut their sticker price say they risk losing students to wealthier competitors.

"If a family is being asked to pay $18,000 for Harvard, why would they pay more to go anyplace else?" DiFeliciantonio asked.

Joan McDonald, vice president of enrollment for Drexel University, said only a small percentage of applicants were in a position to dicker for more money.

"We'll look at how desirable the student is to the university, and there may be something we can do to increase scholarship assistance," she said.

Bryn Mawr College is waiting to see this year's "yield," or the percentage of students who accept its offer of enrollment, before making any changes to financial-aid policies, said Jenny Rickard, dean of admissions and financial aid.

"The irony is a higher percentage of students at Bryn Mawr receive need-based financial aid than at Harvard and Yale," she said.

She said she hoped students' "affinity" for the small, personal school would offset any cost differential.

If schools divert money from programs for poor students to help out the middle class, it will reduce access for those who truly need it, Rickard said.

Small private schools such as Rosemont College will have a tough time attracting high-achieving students if they don't offer more financial aid, said R. Lizzie Wahab, vice president for enrollment for the 400-student school. And if they do, they'll have to raise tuition.

James Boyle, president of College Parents of America, said the move by Harvard was a step in the right direction toward reining in costs.

"It exerts pressure on other colleges, which need to figure out ways to keep costs down because the market leader is doing that," he said.

Saying they aren't as rich as Harvard "is a convenient excuse. They can make more targeted use of their resources to hold down costs," he said.

Schools need to operate more like businesses, he said, and look at both revenues and expenses. Areas where they might control costs include salaries for tenured faculty and administrative functions, such as Internet services.

Dickinson's Durden agreed that colleges should adopt more businesslike practices.

"There needs to be an admission that the current business model is not working," he said.

If colleges want to cut costs and lower tuition, they could eliminate research or become for-profit institutions and cut out all but academic programs, he said.

If Harvard had used its influence to address the issue of rising costs, "that would have been real leadership," Durden said.

Asher said schools could start by making the financial-aid process more transparent.

"What each person pays is very different. It's like buying a car," she said.

Finding new ways to cut costs probably won't happen right away, not as long as schools feel the need to build sports palaces and new technology centers to snare top students.

At Bryn Mawr, said Rickard, the very personal, customized education that students receive is worth the high sticker price.

"It's a very transformational experience," she said.