Harvard ED vs UChicago ED

JBStillFlying
Wed, 13 Jan 2021 06:26:11 +0000

warblersrule:

I agree that this is generally the case, though obviously the situation for any given student could be quite different. Not only is the percentage of students graduating with debt from Chicago more than double that of Harvard, the average debt at Chicago is noticeably higher – $26,600 compared to around $6000 at Harvard according to CollegeBoard, which draws its data from the CDS. (Chicago does not make its CDS publicly available, which makes this difficult to verify, however.)

Not sure about Harvard but UChicago is a moving target when it comes to FA data. Their no loans program started in, I think 2014 or 2015 (forget which) so the latest available data will include loans outstanding from matriculations before that time. Warbler is correct that this was years after others had gone that route. (NB - loans are still an option at any of these schools for families who wish them).

I tend to look at the incoming class for “most current” trends; even then, the data doesn’t include UChicago’s updates via Empower. But anyway, for the 2018-19 year, per NCES, approximately 10% of UChicago’s incoming class took out an average of $9.7k in federal and other loans. In contrast, about 7% of Harvard’s incoming class took out an average of $5.8k in federal and other loans. It bears mentioning that not all who take out loans are ignorant of the benefits of some debt financing or are financially at the end of their rope. A quick perusal of loan default stats for both schools doesn’t really provide any noticeable evidence that students in one school are more heavily burdened with debt than the other.

For 2018-19, again per NCES, UChicago and Harvard cost approximately the same for the $0-$30k income range. For the $30k-48k range, Harvard is $2k less than UChicago. For the $48-$75k range, H is $4.5k less expensive than UChicago. For the $75-$110k range, H is $2.5k less than UChicago. For the $110k+ range, H is $3k more expensive than UChicago. Again, these are yearly averages. Best to check the NPC which will be more tailored to your specific situation and will have the current FA programs loaded up. As just one example (and mentioned before), UChicago now grants full tuition for families with income under $125k (my earlier post incorrectly said $100k).