<p>“The budget for 2012-2013 is 166 million dollars. Even with that kind of money, Harvard still cannot afford to offer full financial aid to each of its 6,600 undergraduate students.”</p>
<p>No. That budget is an estimate compared to last year’s requests, not the maximum available amount. There’s a whole lot of money left in the general-operations pot that can and will be redirected to fin aid if necessary. It’s a super high priority for the college. The 10%-of-your-income rule was an expensive innovation several years ago. In 2009, a lot of current students needed more help, and the fin aid budget rose, even though Harvard lost billions and instituted a 19% budget reduction across other college departments.</p>
<p>JHS is right that Harvard can guess who’s rich and poor from a lot of cues throughout the application. But they really can afford not to bring that into the admissions equation.</p>