<p>I've read the news about Yale hinting at improving their financial aid policies in response to Harvard's announcement. Do you think any of the other Ivy's (other than Princeton) will be able to / choose to make similar changes?</p>
<p>If the other Ivys want to stay competitive, yes. It's unlikely admitted students would turn down Harvard AND a great FA package...</p>
<p>I will bet that not only some Ivies, but also some other top colleges with large endowments fill follow Harvard's lead.</p>
<p>Looking forward to seeing how many applicants Harvard gets this year and how many applicants it accepts. I'm guessing perhaps 1:12 will be accepted.</p>
<p>I'm excited about the possibility. My husband looked at the table in the WSJ article and said "we can afford that." Not to start a discussion about who should be paying what, but I commented that we could come up with what it showed for typical cost at our income level under the old system. Husband said we could pay**** that, as opposed to actually afford****.</p>
<p>Harvard's move certainly make it a more financially realistic choice for middle-income families.</p>
<p>I'm willing to conjecture that Brown will not be, given the size of their endowment. Poor bastards.</p>
<p>The question is can they afford not to? If they don't I think we will see an even larger gap between the HYP group and lesser five. Even though I am personally benefiting from the H change I feel a little sorry for the thousands of kids who will have to struggle to pay for their educations.</p>
<p>^^ Here's why I think thats not true: There's not only enough all star students to fill HYP. In fact, that number isnt even static. So as more and more top rate students come in to being, the other schools are bound to "win"- there's no getting better than the best, so HYP can't gain anything, whereas the other ivies/ ivy caliburs can.</p>
<p>Cornell, Penn, Brown and Columbia have (relative to the other Ivies) low per student endowments, and will find it difficult to compete on this score.</p>
<p>I agree that this is exciting news for many families of top students. I do applaud H for the move. Though at the risk of sounding cynical, let me just say that this decision seems less driven by Harvard's largesse -- and more by the anticipated change in demographics coming down the pike in a few years ;)</p>
<p>My guess is that the lesser 5 will eventually split from HYP and start offering merit aid. Less expensive than an across the board change in policy on need based aid.</p>
<p>I agree with those who think that there will be very few followers of H, for both financial and more practical reasons. It seems to me that the only schools that can reap much concrete benefit from the huge expense of trying to follow suit are those that manage to win a respectable number of cross-admits from H now.</p>
<p>Princeton was ahead of Harvard by a few years on several aspects (grants instead of loans, no home equity considered) of the plan that are being applauded as groundbreaking. As for the decrease in expected contribution, I suspect Princeton at least will follow suit, though probably quietly.</p>
<p>I don't think there are any colleges that win a substantial number of cross admits with Harvard. But I expect that the colleges that can afford to match the Harvard initiative will do so. Dartmouth may be able to do it, but the other non-HYP Ivies probably cannot.</p>
<p>I would be very surprised if they started offering merit aid. The non-HYP Ivies still get an overwhelming number of well qualified candidates, and all have high yields. They are opposed to merit aid on principle, and they do not need it to compete for students.</p>
<p>"They are opposed to merit aid on principle" snort, chuckle. They oppose it because by virtue of a collective agreement with the other Ivy's they have been able to get away without offering it. As non-ivy highly selective schools compete with merit aid and HYP compete with extremely generous need based aid, that the lesser 5 can't match, they will eventually break ranks.</p>
<p>I seem to recall Harvard making headlines a few years ago for a policy that waived tuition (all fees?) for accepted students under a certain income. If other schools followed suit, they did so quietly. </p>
<p>In all likelihood, it would be nice if other schools enacted similar aid policies, but I don't see much practical necessity. There are enough stellar students out there that even if the nation's very best applicants start heading to Harvard at higher rates, I doubt the next few schools in line will really suffer. And as for the schools below the veeery top of the pile, they probably don't win the majority of cross-admit 'battles' with Harvard anyway, so aid will likely only increase Harvard's already-present edge.</p>
<p>I think that this policy will make wonderful and significant differences for plenty of individual students and their families, and of course it will be excellent if other schools follow suit as they're able, but I don't think that much will change, generally speaking (i.e. Harvard's new policy "wooing" hordes of students away from other Ivies and drastically altering the caliber of its student body, forcing other top colleges to revamp their own aid and advertising). I imagine there'll be a reaction of some sort, but probably nothing earth-shattering.</p>
<p>It's also worth noting that I do see a downside to all of this. Don't get me wrong...it's mostly fantastic! But the college application and selection process is already so stressful, and so arbitrary (to some extent), I wouldn't want to be the 14 year old now hearing "We'll be able to afford state college or Harvard." It's not that there's anything wrong with the state alternative, it's just that it seems like...man...one more reason for high-achieving kids to freak out :(</p>
<p>What a difference a year makes! Can you imagine how many more applications Harvard will receive now? I think too that in order to compete for the very top students maybe the other top schools will have to go the merit way. Excluding the home equity from the fin aid equation will kill most of the other schools.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Excluding the home equity from the fin aid equation will kill most of the other schools.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Most elite schools Harvard competes with already exclude home equity from the equation. The only substantial difference will be for students with family incomes in the 120-180K bracket. I am willing to bet that YPSM will follow suit rapidly as they clearly can afford to. Other Ivies don't really have to as Harvard hardly loses any cross admits to them anyway.</p>
<p>Wow, great news for Harvard students and their families! Our son turned down Harvard 2 years ago (due to a low financial aid offer) and accepted a merit scholarship at Duke! Perhaps he'll end up at Harvard for graduate school.</p>
<p>Tuition and aid policies in private higher education appear to be quite fluid this week. The day after Harvard University announced a huge expansion of aid for students in families with incomes up to $180,000, three private colleges in California were preparing for big changes in their aid policies. The schools are California Lutheran University, Cal Tech and Pomona. Jobs</a>, News and Views for All of Higher Education - Inside Higher Ed :: Tuition and Aid Shake-Up</p>
<p>"What a difference a year makes! Can you imagine how many more applications Harvard will receive now? I think too that in order to compete for the very top students maybe the other top schools will have to go the merit way."</p>
<p>Hmm. Harvard still can take only a very few of the top students. It's doubtful that merit aid would lure students from families making $100-$180 k who'd only have to pay $10-$18 k a year (which is a small amount for somone of their income level) for their kid's being able to go to the top college in the world.</p>
<p>As for me, I wish that S's second tier LAC would decide to adopt Harvard's financial aid plan!</p>