International students with full aid from Harvard

[gibby]

I’m sure there are International students accepted to Harvard that have received “full aid” and they can respond accordingly. However, international students need to understand what “full aid” means. Yale has a bit more information on their website than I could find at Harvard: https://finaid.yale.edu/costs-affordability/costs/international-students-and-us-taxes

The U.S. government considers the amount of scholarship you receive in excess of tuition as taxable income. This means that Yale may be required to withhold up to 14% of the amount of your scholarship that exceeds the amount of tuition.

What that means is an international student on “full financial aid” receiving scholarships for tuition, room, board, personal expenses and travel MUST file a US tax return and pay taxes on the amount that exceeds tuition. In Harvard’s case, that would be: https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/how-aid-works/cost-attendance

$10,927 = Room
$ 6,755 = Board
$ 3,000 = Travel

$ 4,000 = Personal

$24,682 = Total X .14 = $3,455

So, an international student on “full financial aid” must take out a loan (or have their parents pay) $3,500 to $4,000 per year, or about $14,000 to $16,000 over the course of four years to attend Harvard. “Full aid” is not really free, even at Harvard.