Harvard Made More Affordable

In an announcement made on Monday, Harvard University stated its intentions of significantly increasing the financial aid it offered to middle class and upper middle class students. The plan, which Harvard officials said they have been considering for some time, will go into effect next school year. This decision will make Harvard's aid to students with household incomes from $120,000 to $180,000 the most generous of any of the country's prestigious private universities. The university also plans to substitute grants for loans in all financial-aid packages and will no longer consider home equity in calculating the amount of aid. Officials claim that the policy will cut costs by as much as 50% for many students and make the real costs of attending Harvard comparable to those at major state universities. The New York Times reports that the new aid policy is part of a broader effort by elite universities to ease the financial burden of rising tuition as well as end the perception that they have become unaffordable.