<p>Harvard has gotten a lot of free publicity by announcing it's "kinder" financial aid policy for students from the middle class. I'm not the least bit impressed!
In my opinion, it's simply a way for Harvard to increase it's number of applicants (and the number of students it can deny admission to) to
maintain it's ranking.</p>
<p>The reality is this: Harvard and all Ivies really don't care very much about the "middle group" of our society. Yes, they make a small effort to recruit underrepresented students; but let's face it, they have very strong connections to the elite layer of our society. Their feeder schools tend to be the elite high-cost private secondary schools and wealthly suburban high schools. It's the same old thing year in and year out. </p>
<p>If Harvard wants to impress me, they should spend some of the money from their bloated endowment on hiring more admissions counselors to focus on the forgotten "middle group" (small rural schools, etc.). And, give those students FAIR consideration in the admission process. After all, students in this group can't afford SAT prep courses, private college counselors, etc.. And, because they don't come from "feeder" high schools, they are at an automatic disadvantage in earning a coveted spot if all other factors are equal.</p>
<p>I challenge Harvard and all Ivies to do more than pay lip-service to the forgotten students from the middle layer of our society. Come on...step up to the plate and do something that will REALLY give students from the "forgotten middle group" a sense of hope that they really have a chance to be admitted.</p>
<p>There are many students from the forgotten middle group who are just as bright and talented as students from the favored wealthy group. It's time for the Ivies to recognize this.</p>
<p>Coming from a fairly wealthy suburban public high school, my school sends a few down, maybe a few more, kids to ivy league schools. In comparison, some of the top tier boarding schools will send 15 kids to a Harvard or Princeton, alone. It's not AA or recruits that take up spots, or even top public school kids taking these spots, its EXTREMELY advantaged kids at the Andovers and Exeters of the world.</p>
<p>
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don't you have to apply to get into Andover or Exeter? perhaps those kids are simply better than you are..
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</p>
<p>Because most people know about places like Andover. Andover and Exeter are havens of the rich and well-connected. Attending either has nothing to do with ability or individual worth.</p>
It's no small coincidence that elite prep schools are populated with students from families that have annual incomes that make the country's medium income look like a pittance. I don't consider being wealthy, attending great schools and having ample opportunities a skill, ability, or anything else of worth. It's luck.</p>
<p>Except the days of playing day-care to the New York/Boston elite are over for virtually all prep schools--Andover and Exeter especially. I won't go so far to say that kids at Andover and Exeter are simply "better" than other students across the nation...but I challenge you to find me a regular, suburban, public school that forces its students to work nearly as hard as the kids at Andover and Exeter do.</p>
<p>My middle class (on average) high school produces dozens of well-qualified students. Never more than 5 a year to Ivy Leagues, but MANY to UCB and UCLA, which are quite difficult to get into from out of state. The reason? Expensive private schools with huge endowments that could afford to admit all but the very wealthy students at virtually no cost ask for more money from the upper strata of the middle class than high quality publics. </p>
<p>There is a section of households that are considered too wealthy for financial aid, but cannot afford college without it. They are screwed. Harvard claims to have created a system that will no longer screw them over. Not sure if I believe it.</p>
<p>why don't you believe it? the new financial aid policy is great...i go to a public school that sends 3-4 kids to Harvard every year so it's not like all of the kids that go to Harvard are from elite private schools...</p>
<p>And then the middle class feels the true squeeze from tutition - its such a bitter irony.</p>
<p>If you're dirt poor, the $40,000 tutition means nothing and is payable. If your in poverty, you dont pay anything.</p>
<p>If your rich as heck, the tutition is meaningless.</p>
<p>If you a person who actually needs the money desperatley and who paying for it is the biggest expense next to the house, then life sucks for you.</p>
<p>God knows I can be as cynical as they come in judging what Harvard is doing, but this class warfare talk is a bit much. For the record, 65% of Harvard's undergraduates come from public high schools. </p>
<p>My personal view is that Harvard might have been as much motivated by reputation control as anything. With a $28bn endowment, I'm sure that many Harvard alums are begging the school to start spending some of this money in a constructive fashion. Increasing financial aid is a constructive step (although I am certain they could have gone a good deal further). But going too far might have created embarassment and difficulty with their non-YP Ivy brethren who don't have near the same level of resources. So they chose a more middle course and left it up to the other institutions to make their own judgments about whether to follow or not. </p>
<p>A further consideration was how the use of merit money by some colleges may be affecting the decision-making of some students. Harvard wants to win all of the cross admits and if places like Wash U and others can attract more middle-income students with offers of grants, then Harvard can muddy the waters with this move and perhaps move some of them back to choosing Harvard.</p>
<p>With 7000 undergrads and a cost of about $50,000 for tuition, board, and expenses, Harvard could let all undergrads go to school for free for $350 million yearly. Could they afford it?</p>
<p>I was quoting the most recently available NACUBO number, but the $35 bn is obviously more current... and even more of an embarassment of riches. It's a high quality problem to have, but I would hope that Harvard will do more of these types of things (incresing financial aid) and/or share some of that wealth in a way to benefit others.</p>
<p>You commented that 65% of Harvard's students come from public high schools. Actually, this supports my position in the opening post. Remember, only a TINY percentage of all high schools in this country are private; yet more than one-third of all students at Harvard came from this tiny group of high schools. The overrepresentation of private high school grads at Harvard is enormous.</p>
<p>Next, if you take into account the number of public school students who went to elite feeder high schools that Harvard regularly accepts students from (mostly wealthy suburban schools), few of Harvard's students come from the "forgotten middle group" of students I referred to in my opening post.</p>
<p>It would be very interesting to have every Ivy publish a complete listing of all high schools represented, with the number of students from each high school. That would tell the true story.</p>