<p>On the point of comparing Harvard’s and Princeton’s financial aid systems, if your family earns under 60k a year you pay nothing or close to nothing. Thus both systems are comparable at the low end of the income spectrum.</p>
<p>Besides, Princeton guarantees a no loans system – other colleges continue to count loans as part of financial aid, but Princeton has clearly moved ahead on this point, and the other colleges have yet to catch up.</p>
<p>Finally, this endless bickering is stupid. Just apply to both schools and see what aid packages you get. If you want to compare schools, listen to students, not to old alums who fervently promote their own schools and bash others. This board certainly tends to facilitate that trap. Once you start comparing schools by statistics, you lose the meaning of what college is about: your own personal experience.</p>