Harvard College Need-Based Financial Aids & Scholarships for Studying in US

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Harvard College Financial Aid Overview

Our current financial aid program was significantly enhanced in 2007 with the goal of ensuring that middle and upper-middle income families could better afford a Harvard education.  Although we had expanded aid for low and moderate- income families in 2004, we were concerned that families across the economic spectrum were having difficulty meeting college costs. In the past few years we have conducted internal studies and spoken with hundreds of families who were struggling to handle expenses.  Our recent expansion is a direct response to this information, and has dramatically altered the way in which we assess parent contributions. Circumstances that in the past were responded to on a case-by-case basis through our appeals process are now preemptively incorporated into our model of assessing financial need. Our financial aid program is completely need-based and considers many factors such as income, assets, size of family and unusual expenses, and our resulting expected parent contributions are, on average, significantly lower than in past years.

Can students really expect to graduate from Harvard with no debt now?

Yes. For the past decade, as we have increased our scholarship program, we have seen our median graduating student debt decline from over $16,000 to just $8,100 for the Class of 2009. We are particularly pleased with this result because average debt upon graduation from private colleges nationally is greater than $20,000. But, given the increasing expenses that our recent graduates face in their first years out of school and the significant loans that they will often be asked to assume to finance graduate school expenses, we have become increasingly concerned that students might be turning away from less lucrative careers and be less likely to go to graduate school later because of their loan debts. Therefore, we are pleased to have eliminated student loans entirely from our financial aid awards, thus reducing the "self-help" component of all financial aid awards to $2,500 for freshman. Students can choose from a wide variety of jobs, including research with faculty members and a range of community service opportunities, to meet their term-time work expectations.

Do I qualify for these programs as an international student?

Yes. Like Harvard's need-blind admissions policy, all of Harvard's financial aid is citizenship-blind. Thus, any student who is admitted is eligible to receive the most generous aid package possible.

For a more detailed explanation of our program, please click the links below:

Financial Aid Office 

Financial Aid Office 

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