<p>I read something like "Families with income below 60k are not expected to pay at all" on the Harvard website. Does this include all expenses?</p>
<p>-I heard that they even pay for 2 flights back home every year?</p>
<p>Can anyone shed some light on this topic please?</p>
<p>Yes! Its all 100% true, my friend got this scholarship, so lucky!</p>
<p>Yes it’s true unless Harvard is lying.</p>
<p>That’s what gets me crazy the most. :D</p>
<p>Something like that. My family makes <60k and it’s basically free. In theory I have to pay something like $1200 a year which is a reasonable expectation for what you’d make at a summer job, though as a Massachusetts resident I get some grants that more or less cover that cost. </p>
<p>I don’t know about the flight thing because I live in Massachusetts.</p>
<p>A few other schools offer this (Yale etc.) and all of the Ivy’s as well as top LACs and universities offer incredibly generous financial aid that is in line with this.</p>
<p>Technically it’s true, but the school will also look at assets and real estate. Harvard doesn’t want to give out scholarships to unemployed former business tycoons who have sold their business and bought millions of dollars worth of houses.</p>
<p>YEP!! 100% true kinda wish my parents were making just a little bit less now lol</p>
<p>Airfare isn’t covered for me, and I’m an international student who benefits from the < $60,000 full ride. Although they will pay for your flights to and from prefrosh weekend.</p>
<p>Harvard’s financial aid fabulous. Out of all the colleges I was accepted to who claimed to meet full-need, Harvard’s definition of full-need was unmatched. </p>
<p>I’m getting financial aid for two round trips home in my freshman year, but only one for the following years. I have even received money for winter clothing!</p>
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Please tell me you’re referring to their campus preview weekend in April after admissions. If they pay or support the price of the flight I’m gonna go running. (That makes no sense, but try and understand me here.) Otherwise, I can’t really visit (this is all considering the near-impossibility that I’m accepted), and to be honest, I’m dying to go check out Cambridge & Boston before making a decision to go there/not go there.
PS: I’m an international and can’t afford the cost of a trip for one weekend to Boston just to check out a couple campuses.</p>
<p>Were you referring to that? <em>crosses fingers</em></p>
<p>Yes, he was. Princeton, Stanford, and Yale will do the same.</p>
<p>Yes, I’ve heard the same statement and I believe it’s true. The financial aid is one of the best things about Harvard.</p>
<p>This links to an article detailing the policy at Harvard:
[Harvard</a> offers free tuition for low income students - CollegiateTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/9664/harvard-offers-free-tuition-for-low-income-students]Harvard”>http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/9664/harvard-offers-free-tuition-for-low-income-students)</p>
<p>My family’s income is a lot less than that amount and I’m pretty sure I’ve paid over $2000 so far for college, but that’s including with outside scholarship. I also have to pay for my own travel flights but did receive the winter coat fund. There’s also something called Harvard Student Events Fund that pays for tickets to almost all school events for those who qualify, which is really great.</p>
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<p>Totally agree!</p>
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<p>Uh-oh, that’s not good.</p>
<p>xrCalico23, does your family have an unusual amount of financial assets? If not, have you considered talking to HFA? They might be able to give you more aid.</p>
<p>xrCalico, isn’t the amount you’ve already “paid” included in your financial aid package through expected term-time employment?</p>
<p>Outside scholarships are supposed to be deducted off of work/study and summer employment contribution first though :(</p>
<p>usually harvard doesnt directly pay for air flights to my understanding. if you receive full financial aid, then you normally dont pay harvard anything for tuition and dorm and dining hall costs and other random stuff thats billed to you. however, the assumption normally is then that students have their own contribution to be fulfilled either through things like term time work or summer time employment, which you usually use to pay for auxiliary things like airfare and whatnot (although it always depends on where you live, and then sometimes they give you more aid to cover stuff like that). it really depends a lot, but rest assured that harvard does take the cost of 2 trips to and from home each year into account when determining your financial aid award.</p>
<p>outside scholarships are also very nice but sometimes annoying to deal with.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, I’ll look into it some time. For some reason I just never managed to understand all those convoluted figures included in my financial aid package :o, and after all, what Harvard is currently asking is already extremely generous compared to any other school…</p>