Parents now starting to worry about price....What to tell them?

[johnleemk]

<p>Those calling “********” on the statement that a majority of students at colleges like HYP don’t pay the sticker price ought to, like I said, pay attention to the financial aid webpages. [Harvard</a> says](<a href=“http://fao.fas.harvard.edu/fact_sheet.htm]Harvard”>http://fao.fas.harvard.edu/fact_sheet.htm):

Two-thirds of all undergraduates receive some form of financial assistance, including outside awards.</p>

<p>Half receive need-based Harvard Scholarship aid, totaling over $86 million.</p>

<p>One fifth of the families receiving need-based scholarship assistance from Harvard have incomes above $130,000.</p>

<p>As a result of our new Harvard Financial Aid Initiative, parents with total incomes below $60,000 are expected to pay nothing</p>

<p>Foreign students have the same access to financial aid funding as U.S. citizens, including the new policy outlined above.

</p>

<p>They also have a very nice graph summarising the numbers of applicants for aid, and the total who were successful, broken down by income. This is just for Harvard, and I’ve looked at the Yale and Princeton sites, which both offer similar statistics. (Princeton is even more generous; they do not include loans as part of financial aid, and only provide grants.)</p>

<p>Anyone claiming that “The majority at top schools pay full price,” ought to either show how HYP is lying to applicants and parents, or shut up.</p>