A new Harvard University financial aid policy will allow students from middle- and upper-class families to pay as little as less than 10 percent of their family income toward tuition each year.
Students whose families make between $120,000 and $180,000 will only have to pay 10 percent of their income – $12,000 to $18,000 — for tuition, while students whose families make between $60,000 and $120,000 will have to pay increasingly less, according to a university press release announcing the plan yesterday. A student whose family makes $180,000 now pays $30,000, the statement says.
The initiative builds off a plan in 2004 that allowed students whose families make less than $40,000 each year to attend the school without charge, according to the statement. The number was raised to $60,000 last April.
“We want all students who might dream of a Harvard education to know that it is a realistic and affordable option,” said President Drew Faust in a statement. “This is a huge investment for Harvard.”
The new policy focuses on “middle- and upper-middle-income families” who, according to Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael Smith, are feeling “increasingly squeezed” because of healthcare woes and longer work weeks.
“We want to ease these burdens,” Smith said in the statement. “We want to make Harvard affordable for talented students from all financial backgrounds.”
The project also looks to replace often-expensive student loans with increased grants, which do not need to be paid back. Harvard does not award students athletic or merit scholarships.
Harvard’s financial aid budget will jump 20 percent — or $22 million — each year because of the increase, Faust told the student-run Harvard Crimson yesterday, and, according to the report, more than 90 percent of American families will be eligible to benefit from the new policy.
Students whose families make between $60,000 and $80,000, who represent about 25 percent of the Class of 2011, will benefit most from the initiative. The number of Harvard students who come from this demographic have increased 33 percent over the past three years.
