New Grants for $160,000 Families

As the price of a college education continues to creep upward, Harvard is offering financial aid packages to middle-income families who only a few years ago might not have been eligible for assistance.

Last year, 1,362 Harvard undergraduates whose families made more than $100,000 received aid grants from the College. That figure included 351 students whose families made more than $160,000. In all, 3,357 College students received non-loan aid last year, out of a total of about 6,600 undergraduates.

The rise in aid for what the College calls middle-income families reflects a concern that Harvard is doing better at attracting students from the extremes of the financial spectrum than it is at attracting those in between. Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 said in an interview yesterday that promising middle-income students are increasingly foregoing applications to the Ivy League in lieu of prestigious in-state schools that provide competitive tuition.

“There’s a prevailing misconception that there is no financial aid available for families [with incomes at or around] $100,000,” Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 said in an interview yesterday.

Last year, families with incomes between $100,000 and $140,000 received an average of $21,693 in grants—an increase of nearly $4,000 from 2004-2005, according to the admissions office.

“Middle-income covers a lot of territory,” Fitzsimmons said. Such families are not “impervious to the increasing cost of college...but not eligible for as much financial aid as they would like.”

According to Fitzsimmons, approximately 80 percent of U.S. undergraduates go to college within 200 miles of their hometown, and about 90 percent stay inside a 500-mile radius. He mused that stronger middle-income financial aid offerings were the only way to pull those students away from attractive offers from in-state schools.

The heightened attention to financial aid for middle-income families has corresponded with a push to increase aid across the board—including for those students at the low end of the economic spectrum. The Harvard Financial Aid Initiative, created in 2004, requires no contribution from families that make under $60,000 and a greatly reduced contribution from those with incomes under $80,000. Last year, the College gave non-loan aid to 1,081 undergraduates—one-sixth of the student body—whose families made $60,000 or less. Among them were 135 students whose family incomes were below $10,000.

Harvard says it has a need-blind admissions policy, meaning that applications are considered without regard to a family’s ability to pay for college.

“We make a pledge to [families] to meet their full need,” Fitzsimmons said. “Every year, we try to think of what we can do.”

Last week, University President Drew G. Faust announced her intention to expand financial aid offerings to students at several of the graduate schools at Harvard. Without offering specifics, Fitzsimmons said he expected this University-wide push to affect the College’s aid programs.

—Staff writer Aditi Balakrishna can be reached at balakris@fas.harvard.edu.