Here’s what I’ve found to be true, at least through my son’s experience. You’re at school to learn, to study and to have fun – in that order. Although my son does have fun on-campus, he has actually had more fun traveling and going on adventures with the friends he has met at school. For example, freshman year, he bonded with his entryway mates, so much so that about 15 kids from his school spend their vacation time together. During summer vacation, fall break, winter break, and spring break, all of them have traveled en masse to New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Texas, Vermont, Utah, Long Island, North Carolina, Alabama, New Orleans, Thailand, Bali, and Vietnam together. And we’re not from a wealthy family, so my son has had to work 20 hours a week during the school year to pay for all those adventures. Kids have spent the night sleeping on our living room floor, and they do the same when traveling to their friends houses in other states and countries. The friendships he has made will last a lifetime and are beyond what has occurred on-campus. My daughter didn’t have that kind experience at Harvard, but she knew other kids that did. So, much depends on your circle of friends that you meet at school . . . and all of that is rather unpredictable.
I was in the same boat as you. I committed to Harvard this Sunday 
I was accepted the accelerated medical program at Rutgers with a full ride for 3 years of undergrad and a good chance of receiving a considerable scholarship towards medical school. I know Rutgers isn’t UNC, but accelerated medical programs are insanely competitive. My family is also solidly upper middle class, so I don’t qualify for much financial aid.
I’m going to be taking out Harvard and unsubsidized Stafford loans to cover the cost of a Harvard education, but to me, it’s worth it. I wasn’t thinking about prestige when I made my decision, but about the number of opportunities I would receive at Harvard that wouldn’t necessarily be available to me at Rutgers (although it is a great school).
Great opportunities will always be there for people that recognize them and go the extra mile to take advantage of them. You must be one of those people, or you wouldn’t have these 2 options. Harvard is one of those opportunities. I’m sure I would have been happy at Rutgers, but I would have felt like I was missing out on something even better for a long time.
Interested in networking? You’ll find bigger fish at Harvard. Want to have a good time? I hear the final clubs throw great parties. Both of your options are great, and I know you have a really tough call to make. But I hope you at least decide to attend Visitas.
“Do Harvard students have a lot of great social experiences/fun?”
OMG, yes! But it isn’t the same flavor of fun that you would get at a big state school. Most Harvard students pay attention to just a few sporting events per year; giant frat-type raging keggers are few and far between. But if, like mine, your ideal social life is smaller parties, meeting and talking to tons of amazing new people, dancing, traveling together, alcohol available if you want it – it’s amazing at Harvard.
lmao. Words of ignorance
^^ And you are saying this because you have been a student at both schools? Or, perhaps you have been a professor at both schools? Or, are you just a high school student that doesn’t quite understand that several Harvard professors received their undergraduate education at UNC and you’ve just insulted their alma mater?
gibby, I have been a student at Harvard and a UNC-level school. While I have immense respect for you and your posts, in this case, I agree with Akashi’s point: that one will not get just as good an education at UNC as one will at Harvard.
@HappyAlumnus: I guess it really depends on a student’s major and their goals. For example: because UNC does not attract the same caliber of student as Harvard, someone who got into both Harvard and UNC, and is interested in pre-med, might have an easier time getting straight A’s in biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics at UNC than they would at Harvard. When it comes time to apply to medical school, that might put a straight A student from UNC at an advantage over a B or C student from Harvard. Based upon this Crimson article, 90% of Harvard students are not getting A’s in those classes: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/9/26/the-real-premed-requirements/?page=single
Does a Harvard student with a B or C average really get a better education than someone at UNC who got an A in those same basic courses? When student’s apply to medical school, is a B from Harvard just as good as an A from UNC? I would think that’s a topic that’s up for debate.
And if a family is not from an ultra wealthy background, a pre-med student with A from UNC, who got a free-ride, is in a better financial position to tackle the costs of medical school than if they had gone to Harvard and had to take out loans for their undergraduate degree.
so which did the OP end up choosing?
@acquarium, similar experience here and agree with you.
Forgive me, @gibby but this doesn’t really make sense to me.
So we know, based on Harvard’s stated policies, that if you make $150K, then you only have to pay (roughly) $15k in tuition.
But if you make $185K, then you are expected to pay the $15k that someone making $150k makes, plus another $48K per year?
By that that version of Harvard math, Family 1 is left with $135K net after paying Harvard (150k-15k = 135K).
And Family 2 is left with $122K net after paying Harvard (185k-63k = 122k).
That doesn’t make sense. Family 2 would be better off taking a pay cut from their employer, down to 150K, as that would net them $13k more at the end of the year, after paying Harvard.
What I have read, and what the NPC seems to indicate, is that there is a sliding scale from $150K up to somewhere north of $200k. It also seems logical that if they’re leaving $150K income families with $135 net after paying Harvard, they would extend the same generosity to families that make more. So if you make $175K, for example, the max they’ll make you pay is $40K, so that you end up with the same net as the $150K income family paying $15k.
And the reality is that the NPC seems a little more generous than that, not requiring you to pay every single dollar over that net $135K to Harvard.
@baltimoreguy - I think the Harvard NPC is pretty accurate: According to the NPC, the family making $185k would be asked to pay about $16k more than the family making $150k, or 45% of the additional pre-tax income.
If you factor in federal and state taxes paid on the additional income (25% for federal, state taxes vary), only about 25-30% of that income remains.
In the case of a family with younger children and a parent at home, it may be self-defeating for that parent to go back to work, as the additional expenses required when both parents are working (child care and transportation) could end up being greater than the net income from that work.
This problem is not unique to Harvard, but the exact numbers will vary from school to school.
@baltimoreguy and @BldrDad: http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/09/bending-the-curve-on-financial-aid
Harvard has to draw a line in the sand somewhere, and they currently are drawing it at $180K. A family with one child in college and average assets is over the limit for financial aid making $185K or $200K, or $225K.
@gibby - The article you quoted says a family with $180,000 income and average assets would be expected to pay up to $29,700. That’s not full pay. It’s 16.5% of their income, and approximately half of the full cost of attendance. The financial aid limit is actually a lot higher - assuming no unprotected assets and one child in college, the limit is about $250,000.
Note: when Harvard says “cost to family”, I believe they mean “parental contribution” - the student is also expected to contribute to the cost of their education through summer and term-time earnings.
Please reread the article, including this quote
I agree that the NPC and this article are NOT in sync – one of them is off. But the NPC for many colleges is not 100% accurate. So I’m willing to believe Harvard’s official publication and their press statements rather than their NPC. Whatever the NPC may state, Harvard’s official publications put the upper limit at $180k with one child in college and average assets (which usually means assets under $200K). Please refer me to any Harvard article stipulating that the upper limit for financial aid is $250,000.
@gibby that article says $180,000 had been the upper bound of the 10% on how much of your income you had to pay, not the upper bound of what income qualifies for any financial aid.
The very quote you posted states that people making 180K will now be asked to pay 16.5% of their income. Do you really think people making 180K only have to pay 16.5% and people making 185K will have to pay 33% of theirs?
Harvard financial aid, with one child in college, moves past 10% of income around $150K, but doesn’t phase out until about a quarter million, unless there are significant family assets. Of course, the issue can quickly become the accumulation of family assets. Someone making a quarter million per year might readily accumulate some significant assets.
@gibby - The article states that at the time prior to the time it was written (in 2011), the upper bound for the 10% rule was $180,000, but starting with the class of 2016, the upper bound for the 10% rule was dropped to $150,000. This article is discusses the change in financial aid calculations for families with income in this range, hence the use of the term “upper bound” to designate the top portion of the range being discussed, not the upper bound for receiving aid. In no place does it state the upper bound for receiving aid.
My understanding from reading this article is that this change meant that a graduated scale from 10% of income at $150,000 to 16.5% at $180,000 was instituted I have no idea if this rule remains in effect.
As a family with income near the bottom of that range, and no unprotected assets, we were asked to pay significantly more than 10% last year. While we greatly appreciate the aid our daughter receives, in retrospect, we should have probably appealed the award.
If that’s true, why doesn’t Harvard simply state that fact on their website? Instead, what Harvard says: https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/how-aid-works/fact-sheet
That implies that extenuating circumstances determine how much financial aid a family will receive if their AGI is over $200k. It does NOT imply a sliding scale up to a quarter million dollars. That is your interpretation of what is on their website. But it’s not a sliding scale, nor is it automatically given to every family with income in excess of $200K.
@Gibby that’s a great question. I don’t know why schools feel the need to be so opaque when talking about how much money you can make and still qualify for financial aid.
While, I know it’s not Harvard, here’s what Yale says:
Families earning between $65,000 and $200,000 (with typical assets) annually contribute a percentage of their yearly income towards their child’s Yale education, on a sliding scale that begins at 1% just above $65,000 and moves toward 20% at the $200,000 level.
There is no strict income cutoff for financial aid awards. Many families with over $200,000 in annual income receive need-based aid from Yale.
And Princeton says the average grant for families making $180-200K is $23,600. The average grant for families over $200K is $16,700, but “Most who qualify have two children in college.”
My sense is that Harvard’s Financial Aid awards are in line with, and maybe a bit more generous, than these schools.
^^ You’re correct. Other colleges seem to be more transparent than Harvard with respect to financial aid. FWIW: My son, who just graduated from Yale, received more in financial aid than my daughter who recently graduated from Harvard. And both received more financial aid than Princeton offered – even though all 3 schools were looking at the same CSS Profile, tax forms and FAFSA.