Is it fair - Harvard Finaid policy toward upper middle class family

<p>It was reported by the Boston Globe that 75% students received an average $40,000 aid.</p>

<p>For those families who earn $200k -$300k must pay full tuition in most cases. Is it fair to subsidize those slacker families who earn below $80K?</p>

<p>When you go to a Mercedes dealership, nobody says “oh, since you have no money, I’ll give you a S500 for free”.</p>

<p>I hate when a fool brags that he goes to Harvard for free. Nothing is free in this world. He and his slacker family live off those who donated and who paid full tuition. Shame!</p>

<p>“Slacker Families who make less than 80K”!!! How dare you! why don’t you look up the average salary of a teacher or a fireman or a policeman or a social worker, or a member of the US Military or an artist, or a musician or any other hard working professional who works for less than 80K or 180K for that matter and makes this world a better place because of it. I question who the fool is in this situation. SHAME!</p>

<p>I’m thinking that this must be Shortcut’s little joke. I hope so. When you read College Confidential and read all the heartbreaking stories of brilliant students who did everything right and can’t go to the colleges they worked so hard to get into, it’s not really funny, though.</p>

<p>… but Harvard’s aid doesn’t screw the middle class. It is psychotically generous. If you make over $200,000 - this is how much it takes to not get any aid from them - you are in the top 3% of the population. If you won’t pay for that, it has nothing to do with need and everything to do with picking a different luxury item.</p>

<p>It’s $200,000–if you don’t have any savings.</p>

<p>I guess my parents, who both have a PhD, are slackers since they only make a total of around 100K combined…</p>

<p>If we all make $80K and get a full ride, will Harvard be in business? If you make 80K, you have choices to go to state universities or community colleges, why Harvard? Oh, I got it, you want something better, but can not afford to pay.</p>

<p>Again, try to tell a Mercedes dealer: " I only have $2K, I am poor, could I please get that S500?". His answer: “There’s a used car lot on 7th st.” </p>

<p>I am not trying to be politically correct here. I hope to provoke some discussions here. Every dollar paid by a full pay parent is a hard earned dollar. Same as every dollar donated by an alum. If we’ll be musicians/artists, please tell me who will subsidize your daughter/son’s Harvard education?</p>

<p>If Harvard is truly out of reach for middle class family, then it should cut it’s tuition in half. Everyone should pay the same price, whether it’s a MercedesS500 or a Dodge.</p>

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Alicimoo,
Compare to those two PhDs making $250k and subsidizing your Harvard education, yes, your parents are slackers. Because you live off other people’s contribution. If you can’t afford it, do not ask someone else to pay for you. You can go to state schools and take a loan.</p>

<p>Shortcut, are you a parent or a teenager?</p>

<p>Well, this is a shared account …</p>

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<p>This is utter rubbish. Adjuncts, unless they work only part-time, teach more courses than tenured faculty for a fraction of the pay. Not only do they have to piece several gigs to come up with an income they can live on, but they have to commute (at their own expenses) between different schools. </p>

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<p><a href=“http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php?topic=40404.15[/url]”>http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php?topic=40404.15&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Do the math. At HYPSM and similar schools, a prof would be expected to carry a teaching load of four courses per year. </p>

<p>$3500 per course x4 gets you the princely income of $14k per year for exactly the same amount of work as someone with exactly the same qualifications but on a tenure-track at a college. </p>

<p>The beginning salary for an assistant prof in the humanities (lower than in the sciences or economics) in 2007 (the date of the data posted above) would be around $70k, possibly higher. That salary would come with benefits, typically adding another 1/3 to the total benefits package, plus an office, plus clerical help, plus free paper, phone, etc., not to mention research and travel funds. An adjunct would get none of that. </p>

<p>Slacker?</p>

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Well excuse me and my parents for being immigrants. When they came to America they were already “too old” for most companies to hire since people with PhDs have to be paid a certain income.</p>

<p>Stop being bitter and blaming everyone else for your good fortune of being in a considerably well off family and having to pay for college.</p>

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You are entitled to your opinion and I am entitled to mine. You can choose to subsidize/sponsor a low income family, but please do not guilt others to follow your honorable steps.</p>

<p>How about Harvard adopt this policy:

  1. Everyone pay the same sticker price

, if they choose to attend, they’ll be sponsored by honorable people like you. Of course, there’s not limit for the number of people you are willing to sponsor.</p>

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Then Harvard would lose many many brilliant students and probably wouldn’t be the great school it is now.</p>

<p>shortcut, you are an idiot.
Just because someone is lucky enough to be born into a rich family doesn’t mean they are better than anyone else. It’s not like anyone gets to choose if they’re parents are going to make $30k or $300k a year.</p>

<p>Shortcut, if you are a teen, and you certainly sound like you are, then you’ve done nothing to deserve Harvard, either. Unless you’re a child star or you invented superglue in your basement when you were seven, you’re living off parental welfare as a young adult when you could be showing what a tough guy you are by getting a job. So don’t presume to be superior.</p>

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<p>Yes, and Harvard’s opinion is that every deserving student should have the opportunity to attend such an institution. Since it is a private university, it can pretty much do what it wants with its endowment. If you don’t like it, don’t apply. </p>

<p>As for your policy suggestions, I am sure that Harvard has a better sense of what is best for its students than you have.</p>

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<p>Hey, try these old "hardship’ stories on a Mercedes dealer, I doubt that you’ll drive away a S500 for free. It may work at the used car lot for a donated car. </p>

<p>You do not have to go to Harvard. You can work harder than your parents and send your son/daughter to Harvard and pay the full sticker price.</p>

<p>I see you were too lazy to do the math to justify calling low-earning Ph.D.s slackers.</p>

<p>No, I am not paying full fare in order to subsidize others. In fact, my S is being subsidized by Harvard, as is every other student. He wanted to be surrounded by people of different backgrounds and with different interests. He got that.</p>

<p>I dont understand the OP. Who in our society is going to teach school, wait on you at your vacation resort, drive cabs and take your blood at the doctor’s office?</p>

<p>No policemen either to guard your gated communtiies. Oh right! The 85% of average salaried, disgusting, loser American slackers who go to work every day. </p>

<p>My fantasy is for you to wake up to a world where everyone is an alleged brilliant ivy League graduate but no one is capable of or willing to bake bread, teach art classes or grow food for your blowhard mouth to consume.</p>

<p>And by the way, I am not sure where you get the impression that full paying families anywhere in the USA are paying the actual cost of their children’s educations. They are not. Tuition does not --and has not ever-- covered the genuine cost of one’s education. Try having a conversation with the trustee of any elite school (preferably one who sits on the finance committee) and you might learn a thing or two.</p>