You read that title correctly. Students of low income households can attend Harvard without paying a dime in cost. I’m sure this sounds unbelievable to you, but trust me, I called their financial aid department to verify this personally. And guess what, IT IS TRUE!
The best part is it is better than you might even think. Will explain below.
Personally, I was blown away by the amount of information I discovered and how the program works. It is just unfortunate many in the situation of need are often the last to find out about programs like these, but today we are going to rip down the curtain and expose something wonderful that you or someone you know might be able to take advantage of in the not to distant future.
This article is a follow up to an article we posted yesterday about Harvard making their institution free for low income families. (You can read that article here: Harvard University Is Now FREE for Students of Low Income Families)
Many of you had concerns and questions about the program, so this is why I took the initiative to gather the questions from our Urban Intellectuals – Open Discussion group on Facebook, organize them, call Harvard’s financial aid department and report my findings here. With that said, here we go. This is what I discovered.
Harvard Financial Aid Initiative
The actual name of the program is the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative. It was founded in 2004 and expanded in 2006. The goal is to expand diversity on the campus and give people with low income beginnings a change to attend one of the best institution on the planet. In fact, most students on the Harvard campus, 70%, receive some sort of financial aid assistance outside of loans. Just how this works will be broken down later.
From Daily Finance About HFAI: Students in households earning less than $65,000 per year pay nothing toward room and board. This goes for both International and U.S. citizens. The purpose of the Financial Aid Initiative is to broaden the diversity of the student body to include more low income and/or minority students. Of course, these students must still be in the top 10% of high school students, but Harvard financial aid allows the university admissions process to remain blind.
Harvard financial aid is broken down into several components.
Work-study: There are Harvard financial-aid-based work-study jobs as well as on-campus jobs available for students who don’t qualify for work-study programs.
Outside monetary awards: If the student secures outside monetary awards, the Harvard financial aid policy is to apply that first to the tuition. It may also be used in lieu of the student having to do the work-study program.
Scholarships: If work-study and outside awards do not meet the students’ financial needs, Harvard will give scholarship assistance to meet the remaining needs through Harvard financial aid. These funds come from Harvard financial aid endowment funds, alumni gifts, tuition revenue and federal and state grants.
Loans: Loans have been eliminated from the Harvard financial aid system. However, students may opt to borrow money if they wish. They can choose from the Federal Perkins loan, William D. Ford Federal Direct subsidized and unsubsidized student loans, and the Harvard Loan Program.
Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/08/04/harvard-financial-aid-helps-70-of-students-there/
What’s the catch? Nothing in the world is free.
This was one of the repeated questions we got when the first article went up yesterday. Frankly, I couldn’t blame anyone for being skeptical, but everything seems to be on the up and up.
The catch, if you can call it that, is the funds are offset for the university in several ways, but it is actually 100% free for families without student loans if you qualify. The fees are offset with work study programs, outside donation, and scholarships. This is how low income families are able to attend Harvard University for free.
Does this just include tuition? What about room and board?
Here was a major question I had when we discovered this program. If tuition is free, but a low income family still needs to be saddled with debt to handle room, board and books, then this isn’t much of an opportunity. However, after getting on the phone with the Harvard financial aid department, I was told flat out this includes 100% of everything for all four years, if the student is able to handle the academic rigor of the institution and remains enrolled.
0 Comments