Does Harvard offer any financial aid to RD kids?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>My asian daughter is thinking to apply in many competitive schools. Is there any realistic chance she may get in with need based aid?</p>

<p>Does Harvard offer any aid to needy kids? Many parents have told that HYPMS are too competitive so is there any chance for her?</p>

<p>One thing that is attractive about harvard it has good humanities and good science program. </p>

<p>SAT 1: 800M/800V/720 W</p>

<p>SAT II: 800 Physics, 800 Math II, 800 US</p>

<p>APs: BC Calculus, European History, Chemistry, Physics C, US history, World History - all 5.</p>

<p>Next year: AP French, Micro and Macro, Government, Language and other school required courses.</p>

<p>GPA: top 10% very tough course load, competitive school that does not rank. Many students from the school matriculate at Ivy League colleges each year.</p>

<p>Activities: Debate – best record and many tournaments win; Model UN - Best Model UN Delegate award; Volunteer work, Choir, science research</p>

<p>National Competitions: Winner of two national essay competition and finalist in other essay competitions. National Leadership award finalist in Volunteer work</p>

<p>Summer activities: Research Science Institute (RSI), some other competitive summer programs.</p>

<p>Is she competitive?</p>

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<p>she can get need-based aid, if your efc is less than the cost of attendance. but harvard does not offer merit-based aid.</p>

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<p>she is competitive based on the numbers. as far as the need based aid, harvard, as you may know, has one of the best need based aid policies around, but as hotpiece said it comes down to your family's Estimated Family Contribution as calculated by FAFSA</p>

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<p>Of course with her credentials she is academically competitive at any one of HPYMS and if she can get in she will get money if she needs it. To my certain knowledge Harvard, Yale and Princeton are need blind for international applicants. For practical purposes you can calculate her award from the Princeton financial aid calculator given on the Princeton financial aid site. Harvard, Yale and Williams ( a school you might also consider for a student with her particular strengths) will all give more or less the same amount. Relax.</p>

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<p>I can vouch that Harvard is need-blind for ALL applicants. That's right, ALL 23,000 that apply go through Harvard's need-blind admissions process.</p>

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<p>Princeton calculator predicted family contribution around $6000. College aid was about $39,000.</p>

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<p>
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Harvard, Yale and Williams ( a school you might also consider for a student with her particular strengths) will all give more or less the same amount.

[/quote]
Based in our experience, while the aid packages maybe similar, you may also be surprised at how different they can be. Each school interprets your information their own way and acts accordingly. We saw several thousand dollars difference between these schools.</p>

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<p>But remember, tuition is different at each school. Harvard, for example, considers "tuition" to be the regular tuition, the Student Services Fee, Health Services Fee, travel budget, and $2,675 in personal expenses. If you have health insurance through your state, you can get your student insurance covered by financial aid as well. </p>

<p>When you get a financial aid package, make sure that you calculate how much you're actually going to be paying the school. For example, at first glance, Amherst gave me a better financial aid package, but when I calculated how much money I had to pay Amherst, it was more than the amount our family had to pay for Harvard. The financial aid package may be misleading at first glance!</p>

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<p>I agree that the packages of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Williams may differ by a thousand dollars, but not by any significant degree. The decision of where to go or where to apply should not turn on that. Nobody is going to enter into a bidding war for OP's daughter. If Princeton admits her ED and on their calculation she is entitled to $39,000 in Finaid, they are not going to be all that receptive to the argument that Harvard might give her $40,000. They will likely be receptive to the argument that the, amount considering the circumstances,is inadequate. If OP's daughter is neutral as between Harvard, Yale Princeton, I would apply ED Princeton. As an international applicant she is almost certainly going to be deferred SCEA at Yale and the spread between the Yale/Harvard/Princeton packages is so small that she should not forego the admissions advantage of applying ED.</p>

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<p>Not a thousand, several thousand. And no, most schools will not match offers or bid, they don't need to. I wouldn't apply anywhere ED unless I could afford the full tuition bill.</p>

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<p>Keep in mind, however, that the ED offer, strictly speaking, is not absolutely binding; if a student is unable to pay for a university despite FinAid, the student is not required to come (albeit, you have to demonstrate good proof of this). It truly can be a hassle, however, and whether the OP wishes to go for it or not given the pros and cons, is at the end a matter up to him/her.</p>

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<p>i think that's pretty lousy advice, particularly in the case of princeton, which offers the early estimator for an advance "read," and backs it up with arguably the most generous financial aid in the country. remember, whether schools advertise it or not, one can always back out of a commitment because of insufficient aid.</p>

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<p>True scottie, but schools like Princeton are rare. Bandit is correct for 99% of the schools.</p>

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<p>If that is true, scottie, why on earth does Princeton feel the need to compel ED admits to attend? </p>

<p>If Princeton aid will top that offered by most schools, it should not be necessary to prevent all those kids from applying elsewhere to compare offers.</p>

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<p>To the best of my knowledge Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Williams and Columbia are need blind for international students. If you can get in, you will get the money you need. </p>

<p>From my experience with mentoring a girl who had almost identical scores to those of the OP's daughter and similar Finaid aid need, your best strategy is probably to apply Early Decision to Princeton or Williams and not waste your time applying EA to Harvard or Yale where most likely you would be deferred anyway. </p>

<p>For your purposes Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Wiiams would be academically equivalent and are need blind. From my perspective Wellesley, Smith and Bryn Mawr would also be fantastic academic choices and though not need blind are very eager to recruit girls with a strong interest in science. If they want you they will find the money for you. </p>

<p>Since international applicants are in a significantly tougher admission pool than US resident applicants, it might help the OP to consider two actual cases whose application histories I happen to know. Both girls have an identical(European) ethnic background, have similar classical/modern languages training comparable to IB , virtually identical Finaid need and both are first in their class at very distinguished schools. The SAT score of girl A is 800 CR, 720 M, 680 WR. SAT score of girl B is 800 CR, 800 M, 740 WR. Both single sitting.</p>

<p>Girl A expresses interest in doing neuro-psychology and theatre and has the course profile to back this up, Girl B expresses interest in mathematics, languages and music and has the course profile to back this up i.e., Phys. C and BC calculus plus a range of other AP's at 5 standard</p>

<p>Both girls are deferred EA at Yale. In the regular admission round both girls get into a range of Ivy's/First Tier Lacs with virtually full Finaid. Girl A gets into Yale,Princeton and Williams but not Harvard; girl B gets into Harvard, Williams and Princeton but not Yale. The Finaid packages at these places were within about $2000 of each other</p>

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<p>i could just as well ask you, why on earth harvard now feels the need to forbid <em>its</em> early applicants from applying anywhere else early (especially in light of the fact that it had let them do so for many years). "if harvard is that desirable, it should not be necessary to prevent all those kids from applying elsewhere." </p>

<p>as for princeton, there's little financial reason for it to "compel" its ED admits to attend. it is extremely above-board on matters of aid, as exemplified by its pioneering early estimator (to which, according to chris lincoln's "playing the game," other ivy coaches direct <em>their</em> recruits). anecdotally, i've never heard of a single ED admit dissatisfied with his princeton aid package. the biggest motive for compulsion is, as much as anything, enrollment management. it's a lot easier to "shape" your class in the regular round when you know who, exactly, from the early round is already "in the bank" for the fall." of course, this "banked" quality to early admits has proven too good for adcoms at princeton and elsewhere to resist, leading them to take hugely disproportionate numbers of less-qualifed early applicants, and thereby screwing more numerous and better-qualified regular ones. so, that's about as far as i'll go to defend the practice. you know my position on early admissions well, as i've aired it many times in previous posts.</p>

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<p>Hm, a question: why is it being assumed (it's been done so at least twice) that the OP's daughter is an international student?</p>

<p>The OP does mention "asian", but given the context of her exams and activities, I took this to define her ethnicity not her country of citizenship.</p>

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<p>My daughter is a US citizen, and she attends a rigorous high school in USA. </p>

<p>My daughter and I have an agreement, as her parent I would solely focus on financial aid and daughter will choose major as well where she needs to apply based on her liking. We as a parent can advise, but have very little influence. She has her own ideas.</p>

<p>Even though she loves math and science and has done well in it. She wants to explore liberal arts education with emphasis on business. Do we like it not a bit? Not a bit. But, she will do whatever she chooses to do so. We will be happy in whatever she chooses to do. </p>

<p>As a parent we have no idea where she would be admitted. Our main aim is not trophy hunting but only one college where she would be accepted with aid around $39,000 in financial aid or merit based aid?</p>

<p>So you are saying if applied ED Princeton will admit her where as Yale and Harvard will not give her admission. And with ED if they do not offer enough aid we can get out. Please answer this as this is important</p>

<p>Is it possible to contact financail aid people in advance? Is it a good idea?</p>

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<p>My daughter emailed me a web link stating that for H if parents income fall under $60,000 the student receive full aid. For income between $60,000 and $75,000, the cost of attending is significantly reduced. In this case this complicates our financial aid thinking and her applying to school as our gross is barely above $63,000.</p>

<p>The confusion starts that Y and P are offering full aid below $45,000 and in that case our gross income is well above $18000 for their calculator. This complicates thing but I need to recalculate it.</p>

<p>I was wondering in this case would Princeton or Yale offer similar financial aid incentives that match H. I think this will be an issue all parents whose kids are seeking financial aid. I am sure it does not affect only our family. This way all parents seeking financial aid would be tempted to apply H only. I hope Y and P make similar offer. </p>

<p>If not so, we have to take a chance and apply H and wait and see what happens as starting this year there will be tremendous financial aid package difference between H and rest of the schools? This is a huge financial aid gap in our case and it would make a significant difference on our budget as for our family $5000 means a big thing as we have other kids who would be seeking college education.</p>

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<p>While you've gotten some very helpful answers here, I do suggest that in finding out important info about things such as colleges' financial aid or admissions policies, it's best to go straight to the source: the colleges' web pages. Colleges do a wonderful job of providing information about their aid policies and admission requirements.</p>

<p>It would be a shame to make a wrong college decision because of getting erroneous information from well-meaning strangers.</p>

<p>The Internet boards, however, are great sources of information about what individual college students' experiences were with admissions and financial aid.</p>