<p>I’ll be at a talk/reception for Harvard’s Dean of Admissions (Fitzsimmons) where he will talk about Harvard’s return to Early Admission. The Director of Admissions and the Director of Financial Aid will also be there. If you can think of any good questions, I’ll ask them for you.</p>
<p>I have a question:</p>
<p>From 2008 to 2011, Harvard families earning up to $180,000 paid about 10% of their income towards tuition, room and board. For 2012, Harvard has reduced the uppermost 10% threshold to $150,000. Given that Harvard’s endowment increased this year by more than 20% to 32 billions dollars, why did the Financial AId Office decide to lower the threshold for upper middle class families?</p>
<p>^The answer to your question is </p>
<p>[Harvard</a> To Offer Record Financial Aid | News | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/9/1/financial-aid-harvard-harvards/]Harvard”>Harvard To Offer Record Financial Aid | News | The Harvard Crimson)</p>
<p>Ill bite.</p>
<p>How does Harvard plan to run their SCEA plan? Do they intend on following the Yale model of deferring ~50%, accepting ~10%, and rejecting ~40%, or do they favor the Stanford model of accepting 8%, deferring a small number of legacies, and rejecting the remainder?</p>
<p>Dwight: While the article very nicely explains that Harvard is giving more financial aid to the low end, waiving tuition for families earning less than $65,000, it does not explain why in the middle of a double-dip recession, with a 32 billion dollar endowment, Harvard is cutting aid to the upper middle class – something they so proudly announced they were committed to doing in 2008. The article also does not explain if the cut effects current Harvard families or will it effect only new families. Much has yet to be explained.</p>
<p>From the official press release:</p>
<p>
Emphasis added.</p>
<p>The lack of clarity was in the Crimson article – it’s still a student newspaper – not the announcement. I believe the announcement also makes clear that the increased ceiling for no family contribution will apply to current students.</p>
<p>Great questions, I’ll ask both if I get a chance. Any more?</p>
<p>Well, I’d love to know the answer to Sniper’s question. So I guess mine ties in with that; Does SCEA help one’s chances of getting in significantly or is it more for legacies/athletes/URMs? Also, is the financial aid as generous as during RD?</p>
<p>Metrical, you don’t need to ask the Dean those questions; they have been answered time and again. (Well, the SCEA question hasn’t been answered in the past few years, because they went four years without SCEA. But the official answer is not in doubt.):</p>
<p>SCEA does not help one’s chances of getting in. People admitted SCEA are those who were certain to be admitted if they applied RD. Some athletes, legacies, and URMs may be included in EA admits, but they are not the majority, and they meet the same standard. (Whether or not that’s completely true is another question. But that’s what the official answer would be, and it’s certainly not a complete lie.)</p>
<p>Financial aid for SCEA admits is exactly the same as for RD admits. (At some ED schools, there is a suspicion that financial aid packages and especially merit scholarships may not be as “generous” – rich – because ED admittees are bound to accept admission, and cannot solicit competing FA offers. SCEA admittees are not bound to accept admission to Harvard, and are perfectly free to solicit other FA offers from other colleges. And if those colleges are Yale, Stanford, or Princeton, Harvard may even match them if their FA offer is meaningfully better. Otherwise Harvard will call your bluff if you threaten to go elsewhere for more aid. But for most families Harvard aid will be among their best offers, absent winning a very competitive full-ride scholarship.)</p>
<p>Thanks for the answer, JHS. I was just unsure because SCEA is coming back this year so they might have decided to make changes.</p>
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<p>Because Harvard is giving more financial aid to the low end.</p>
<p>^^^ What? Harvard can’t afford to give more to the low end end while maintaining aid for the top end? Sorry, with a record 32 billion dollar endowment, Harvard’s cry of “I can’t afford it” is disingenuous.</p>
<p>^You’re essentially saying 32 billion is a big number so Harvard doesn’t have financial concerns. As I’m sure you know, endowment isn’t the same thing as an annual budget. Most of it has to be wisely invested to preserve Harvard’s financial stability over decades. I don’t know what the numbers are, i.e. how much money Harvard saves by cutting the top end and how much it spends by widening the bottom, and I highly doubt you can merely say Harvard is paying for the latter by doing the former, but given any percentage of choice between the two I don’t fault Harvard for making the call it made.</p>
<p>Well, with that comment, it’s quite obvious that you are not actually paying your tuition bill!</p>
<p>BTW: I have it on good authority that the percentage of income that will be asked of Harvard families in the $150,00 to $180,000 income bracket will range from 10% to 16.5%. The exact figure is dependent on assets. That is a significant increase from the previous 10% that Harvard had asked for.</p>
<p>^Actually, I am. I understand that this policy is obviously particularly frustrating to people who are affected by it, but that doesn’t make it a bad policy.</p>
<p>$180,000 times 16.5% = $29,700, which is $11,700 more than Harvard had asked for in that income bracket for 2011. </p>
<p>That is a significant increase and one not to be taken lightly. If the increase effects current students, that actually might make the difference between my daughter completing her education at Harvard or having to transfer to a less expensive college. Hence, my concern.</p>
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<p>Again, if that 6.5% margin is going toward getting rid of a 10% margin for low income families, I call that a good policy. But a better policy would be helping people at both ends, for sure. Given the fact that more people fall into the 150k to 180k bracket than the 60k to 65k bracket (even if they didn’t, you’d still have a net income), the cuts at the top are paying for far more than the widening of the bottom. You can only really know what Harvard is paying for with this if you can examine the entire budget.</p>
<p>I’m not advocating screwing over the better off but really, it is tremendously harder for a 65k income to pay an extra 6500 than it is for a 165k income to pay 10725. If Harvard’s gonna give out free money, I’d give it to the former.</p>
<p>For many upper middle class families like my own, the Harvard of 2008-2011 was an affordable alternative to state schools. With Harvard’s new financial aid policy – that can no longer be said to be true.</p>
<p>Gibby,
If you have not paid significantly more than 10% of your family income in the last two years, you probably won’t next year either. People have been paying slightly more than 10% when the income is above 140k for the last two years at Harvard, depending on other assets.</p>