<p>I've read multiple times on this site that if your family's income is less than $180,000 (I think that's the number), Harvard only asks the family to pay 10% of its income to attend. I've made cursory looks at the website trying to find this, but to no avail. Is this "fact" true? Because whether or not it is will weigh heavily on my decision to apply or not.</p>
<p>Under the assumption that the family is having “typical” assets, whatever that means.</p>
<p>Haha do you really have no idea what that means? Because I know I don’t, and if anyone does and could explain that’d be great. </p>
<p>I would assume my dad has “typical assets” but I really have no idea.</p>
<p>I just did a quick google search. I bet you could find more/better sources as well.</p>
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[Harvard</a> College Admissions § Financial Aid: Harvard Financial Aid Initiative](<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/financial_aid/hfai/index.html]Harvard”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/financial_aid/hfai/index.html)</p>
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<p>[Harvard</a> increases financial aid to low-income students | Harvard Gazette](<a href=“http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/09/harvard’s-record-166-million-financial-aid-program-will-increase-aid-to-low-income-students-and-provide-a-new-financial-aid-calculator-for-students-and-families/]Harvard”>Harvard increases financial aid to low-income students — Harvard Gazette)</p>
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<p>I doubt there is a strict definition, but the idea is that a family that has low to mid income but high assets, like multiple homes, should pay more than a family with the same income with 0 assets, because a family can reasonably be expected to liquidate those assets (to some degree) to pay for college. A family’s primary residence is not considered to be one of such assets.</p>
<p>Are there many families that make under 100k but have tons of homes as investment property? Probably not. But it’s more of a disclaimer for the cases that do come up.</p>
<p>Yeah I did a quick google search on what would qualify as “assets” for financial aid purposes and I don’t believe that my dad has any. I would expect to fall into the $150k-$180k range, and even if it was as much as 15% of my family’s income, I still think we’d be able to afford that.</p>
<p>Do not believe all the self-serving PR coming from the schools. Yes, the Ivyies have the best financial aid when compared to all other schools; no, it is not as good and generous as expressed or implied in urban legend or press releases.</p>
<p>Apply, get accepted, analyze the FA awards. A middle class family - or in your case an upper middle class family - will probably need to tighten their belts to pay for school - even in the Ivies.</p>
<p>HYP are a step ahead of the other five Ivies, stemit. For lucky families accepts and FA from any of those three, very few offers can top them – even publics</p>
<p>Harvard’s Net Price Calculator seems to agree with T26E4. My parents’ expected contribution, based on what the NPC gave me, would be around 25k a year, a very, very reasonable amount.</p>
<p>You can do all the calculations you want, but only the officlal FA award is binding.</p>
<p>I know all about HYP FA - we are greatful recipients from one of those schools. And the amount was no where near as generous as the calculators indicated. The school S chose happened to offer the best aid when compared to the the other two. We found one of those two to be intransigent in its analysis; but that is not the reason he chose as he did.</p>
<p>As I said, the ivies - and particularly HYP - are the best in the country. But not as good as the self-serving PR expresses and implies. The reason? The term “typical assets” is incredibly vague, undefined and undefinable. </p>
<p>We, as I suspect many families, are very greatful and simultaneously foregoing a life style we had before college. </p>
<p>I stand by my observations - apply, get accepted, and analyze. If you get in, stretch beyond what your family believes it can stretch - I believe the sacrifice is worthy.</p>
<p>For our middle class family, Harvard’s generous financial aid has enabled my daughter to attend Harvard for less than the cost of our flagship state college. So, is it true? For our family, YES!</p>
<p>@DwightEisenhower</p>
<p>Is it true that if you’re on full FA (I will be) that your summer work self help amount increases every year?</p>
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<p>Yes. I don’t think it’s a huge increase, but there is one. </p>
<p>On a somewhat related note, I wouldn’t suggest worrying about paying it off summer to summer. As nice as “debt free” sounds, it’s sometimes better to take on a student loan than not, especially when you’re talking small amounts like 3k a year. For example, I wouldn’t turn down an unpaid White House internship because you have to spend your summer making money. And while I personally have had term-time jobs for 7 of my 8 semesters, it may be better for you to put those 10+ hours a week into academics or ECs and take out the difference in loans. Honestly, the max loans that a full-FA student could ever need to take out is like 12k, and that’s if you make $0 during summers and term-time and have no outside grants. While 12k may sound like a lot, it is not usually an unreasonable amount of student loan debt, especially since that time you put into classes/ECs may translate into a better job once you graduate, or at least the indirect foundations of a better job.</p>
<p>Alright, thanks!
I suppose, at least for my first year, I could use scholarships to cover work requirements, and they’re may be scholarships I can grab during semesters too. In the end, like you indicated, there is very little debt to accumulate, if any.</p>
<p>As I have written before on different threads, this policy changed after my son’s freshman year. His first year, we got $1000 in aid (and no other school with need-based aid gave us anything). Then this announcement came out in December of 2007:</p>
<p>[New</a> Aid Plan Targets More Affluent Families | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2007/12/11/new-aid-plan-targets-more-affluent/]New”>New Aid Plan Targets More Affluent Families | News | The Harvard Crimson)</p>
<p>The next year we go $28,000. The year that we had two kids in college (one at Harvard and one not), they gave us even more money because we were paying two sets of tuition bills. It seems from what I’ve just read that the eligibility for having to pay only 10% of assets has now been lowered (it used to be $180,000 in assets per year, but now it’s more like $150,000??), but it’s a lot better than what we are paying for our daughter’s education at a great school but one with a much lower endowment.</p>
<p>All I’m trying to say is that this is not hogwash. The aid difference between Harvard (and Yale?) and other top-tier schools is real.</p>
<p>^^^ For our family, the current difference between Harvard and Yale in the cost of attendance after financial aid is about 4k per year (Yale is cheaper). The difference between Harvard and Brown would have been 26k per year, and between Yale and Brown, 30k per year. So yes, there can be a huge difference in financial aid between schools in the ivy league and in top-tier colleges.</p>
<p>@efeens44</p>
<p>My son was accepted early action to Harvard for this coming year, and I can tell you that the preliminary FA package we received was almost spot on with their net price calculator, so you may find comfort with that. And, it is less than the price tag for our other son who will most likely be attending our state flagship.</p>