Oh, darn! Did you get a financial aid package this spring from Harvard? If so, any chance you’re willing to reveal their numbers and your EFC? It would be really interesting to know what they are expecting from families.
@JAF09 you do understand that you would need every line item on this poster’s Profile form in order to do a maybe comparison with your own situation. I think that’s asking for a lot of information.
Are your parents divorced? Are they self employed or do they own a business? Do they own real estate other than your primary residence? Are you an international student? If NO to all of these, run Harvard’s net price calculator to get a decent estimate on your net cost there. For the 2022-2023 academic year you will need 2020 tax year information.
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You are correct that more info is needed, but I think you missed that 2025Class was responding to my earlier post that is not about any offer I have received (I’m a parent) or that my kid has received (she’s just a junior and not applying to Harvard or any other top school). I was really hoping to get 2025Class to give up the goods on their own experience as to what Harvard might be doing instead of the 10%-of-family-income offer that my friend said they were doing (and that her son received) a few years ago, since they sounded like they might know and it would be relevant to the overall thread. I am sorry for posting quickly without thinking it through. Curiosity doesn’t kill the cat these days - it gets you shamed on the internet…
Encourage your 2022 Grad to research merit and scholarship opportunities. Look at what the different programs offer her beyond scholarship money - honors housing, leadership training, mentoring, civic engagement, internships, study abroad, research, etc… Understand the commitment applying ED means financially and hold off on the ED option, so she can consider everything. Some of the deadlines for merit scholarships/honors colleges come up in October and by November 1. Some you apply with Common App early action and you are automatically considered and others have multiple steps and additional essays and interviews. They need to keep up with their emails and portal logins to manage deadlines and next steps.
She is well positioned to save some money for grad school/law school/your retirement.
We did not discourage our child with similar stats from applying to T20 and T50 schools, but we had open conversations about the costs. She did apply and she did get in to some and was offered about what we had calculated on the NPCs for the schools. 100% need schools and those with merit ended up having family contributions about the same in the end.
We did encourage her to apply for honors/merit programs that were unique to her interests and that would help balance out the financial costs. She was won over by a nonT20 with amazing opportunities for her and ended up getting a full scholarship there after she had already really made up her mind. That just made her feel even better about her choice. She focused efforts on three schools with a separate application process for merit. She did all of that on her own with a few friendly reminders about deadlines. I am not sure how some kids do more than that on top of the applications, senior year classes, and jobs.
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I didn’t mean to shame you…but really…the net price calculator is your friend…if you can answer no to the questions I posed.
The thing is…those calculators are set now for students enrolling in fall 2022. Your daughter won’t be in college until a year after that…and financial aid policies do sometimes change.
Harvard has very generous need based aid for even higher income earners. This is based on their calculations of your need using the financial data on the Profile.
While it may not be your intention, it is really bad form to hijack another poster’s thread.
Harvard’s financial aid website along with their net price calculator are your friends.
Harvard Financial aid states:
We determine parent contribution through a careful review of your family’s income, assets, and overall financial circumstances.
For families with annual incomes below $65,000, the expected contribution is zero. Families with annual incomes between $65,000 and $150,000 will contribute between 0 and 10 percent of their income. Those with incomes above $150,000 will be asked to pay proportionately more than 10 percent based on their circumstances.
Families who have significant assets will be asked to pay more, but home equity and retirement assets are not considered in our assessment of financial need.
Parents may provide their contribution from savings, current income, future income (through borrowing), or a combination of these methods.
You can use our net price calculator to estimate your expected family contribution.
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@thumper1 and @sybbie719 are exactly right with their response to you. My information doesn’t apply to the answers you would be providing on FAFSA or the CSS Profile. Harvard truly takes a personal and individual approach to each student. I was accepted to Yale and Harvard and will say that Harvard, by far, provided the best financial aid package and the most impressive one on one financial aid zoom meetings to help with my decision. Best of luck to you!
One school you might consider is Davidson. They meet full need, but they have a few merit-based scholarships as well. When our S applied to college, we lived in Kansas, and it was no problem having his HS nominate him for the Belk Scholarship. Their website says 4-5% of each enrolling class is offered a scholarship.
What does the child want to study? To me that is the most important. My daughter is interested in journalism/communications and also likes history and the like. State schools are very limiting on how you can dip into other schools and programs. (I went to a private college in the NE 100 years ago and didn’t realize this with my son who goes to a state school.)
Also, what type of school and size is important. My daughter wants OUT of Texas. Loves cities and the Northeast. (Austin isn’t a “city” like we know it.) So merit type of schools out there are in places that she pretty much dislikes. Rice is a great school but doesn’t have what she wants to study, etc. She hasn’t taken the SAT yet and also doesn’t have any national things your daughter has. So she’ll have to stand out more for the NE schools with being from Texas and her essays.
UT is HUGE in size and not her “bag”. Fingers crossed for her and for whatever our EFC will be once we know what our AGI will be next year. Oy.