<p>I just read from a previous forum that Harvard is free for those families making under 40K a year. Is this true?? ANY response would be appreciated. Please write back!</p>
<p>it's true. i applying there in a few yrs.</p>
<p>Are you kidding me? So they're basically giving a free Harvard education to everyone who gets in (that makes less than 40 k of course...)?</p>
<p>Yes. Bear in mind that it's significantly more rare to find a student from a <40k income household who has an application that can stand up to the rest of the applicant pool.</p>
<p>The initiative was what caught my eye about Harvard in the first place. I was really overwhelmingly grateful toward whomever came up with it. Now let's just hope I get in.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, applicants who fall under the "<40k/year" category are not as strong as applicants who are not in this category. </p>
<p>For example, I remember seeing a graph once that showed a directly proportional relationship between family income and SAT scores.</p>
<p>I definitely applied to Harvard because of this initiative. I mentioned it in my interview that if it is one thing that sets Harvard apart from others, it is not only the ability for students to get a great education, but also the fact that I won't have to make my family pay a dime for it. I fall under that "under 40k category," and my counselor introduced it to me, and since then, I have been wanting to go to Harvard because of it's financial aid initiative... of course there are other reasons, but this is one of my main ones.</p>
<p>i applied to H for the sole reason of the 40K initiative. </p>
<p>"it's significantly more rare to find a student from a <40k income household who has an application that can stand up to the rest of the applicant pool."
-I'm so happy that this is true because although I'm poor, living with two parents who completed high school level education (my mom didn't even graduate) I'm able to overcome the disadvantage and create opportunities for myself. I didn't let it get in my way, and it should never. </p>
<p>I think my EC along with my BG will definitely be helpful. So hopefully, good news in 3 weeks? (I hope)</p>
<p>"Generally speaking, applicants who fall under the "<40k/year" category are not as strong as applicants who are not in this category."
-but what if they are?</p>
<p>Fitzsimmons wrote that he'd be very infuriated if he didn't accept 250 low-income students in the EA pool. I might be wrong. </p>
<p>I think this new initiative couldn't have come at a BETTER time.</p>
<p>Did Fitzsimmons write anything about how many he wanted to accept RD? :P</p>
<p>I definitely wouldn't say that the initiative is why I'm applying to Harvard, but like I said, it's what got me interested.</p>
<p>the question for some people is whether this is retroactive. </p>
<p>three cheers for social mobility, though.</p>
<p>wow--is it the same for Yale? I know these schools has a huge endowment, and my mom said yale has a similar program...is this true?</p>
<p>Oh, I never questioned that it was probably retroactive, but at least they noticed the economical homogeneity and tried to do something about it. The funny thing about things that are retroactive is that, either way, they're still working toward progress, whereas the worst case could be not doing anything.</p>
<p>sprkl, I'm sure Yale has amazing financial aid, too, but you should probably search the school's website to find something like this out for sure. I don't know the specifics about the big Y.</p>
<p>I think it's a really good thing even though it has no effect for me (my parents make 100k+)</p>
<p>What if you have divorced parents, one of whom makes under 40k, but the other of whom makes over 40k?</p>
<p>my parents are divorced but in any case their combined income is not going to come to 40k. its not even going to come to 20k because the rupee-dolllar exchange rate is something like 45 rupees to 1 dollar</p>
<p>I think ours will be ~25k this year. It was ~35k last year, though, and that's the tax forms they use. Either way.</p>