Harvard Will Make Tuition Free for Students of Families Making Less Than 200K

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Costs are going up. Inflation continues. Of course financial aid will also go up.

Interesting that Harvard felt the need to announce this, as if it's a change from business-as-usual.

So weird that they didn't keep it a secret. Now they'll be stuck with all these extra applicants who think Harvard is affordable. What they want to happen.
Some of them might even be accepted (need blind, oops!) and lose Harvard a bucket of money! Unlikely, too much data out there to make a lot of mistakes.
Sad! Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all the cynics
1) this is a lot of students: Harvard said more than 25% of Harvard families have total incomes less than $100,000 and for those making up to 200k, they said they will at a minimum pay tuition - and there is not a fall off cliff for the family making $210K as they
2) 55% of Harvard students are on financial aid - so no there is not a cliff. They note those making over $200k may be eligible
3) They don't count home equity. They do say they count assets. For those of you with $5m in assets, typically that would itself provide some type of income via dividends etc. but yes, it does appear that assets will be factored in. Would be strange if it was not that way but whatever.
4) The school is not perfect by any means but this is helpful for many and will provide pressure for their peers who haven't moved this far to come closer.

Your #3 is wrong. Use the calculators or go through process. They do factor in home equity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all the cynics
1) this is a lot of students: Harvard said more than 25% of Harvard families have total incomes less than $100,000 and for those making up to 200k, they said they will at a minimum pay tuition - and there is not a fall off cliff for the family making $210K as they
2) 55% of Harvard students are on financial aid - so no there is not a cliff. They note those making over $200k may be eligible
3) They don't count home equity. They do say they count assets. For those of you with $5m in assets, typically that would itself provide some type of income via dividends etc. but yes, it does appear that assets will be factored in. Would be strange if it was not that way but whatever.
4) The school is not perfect by any means but this is helpful for many and will provide pressure for their peers who haven't moved this far to come closer.

Your #3 is wrong. Use the calculators or go through process. They do factor in home equity.

DP. Harvard explicitly excludes home equity, as does their NPC.

The PP’s 1-2 are misleading, though, precisely because of 3. You don’t need that high of assets to get dinged, even if the income is below the stated thresholds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all the cynics
1) this is a lot of students: Harvard said more than 25% of Harvard families have total incomes less than $100,000 and for those making up to 200k, they said they will at a minimum pay tuition - and there is not a fall off cliff for the family making $210K as they
2) 55% of Harvard students are on financial aid - so no there is not a cliff. They note those making over $200k may be eligible
3) They don't count home equity. They do say they count assets. For those of you with $5m in assets, typically that would itself provide some type of income via dividends etc. but yes, it does appear that assets will be factored in. Would be strange if it was not that way but whatever.
4) The school is not perfect by any means but this is helpful for many and will provide pressure for their peers who haven't moved this far to come closer.

Your #3 is wrong. Use the calculators or go through process. They do factor in home equity.

The cynics just wanting the program to be more forthright. Think consumer rights laws that require advertisers to not say “free” this and that without having to give the conditions IN the ad itself clearly and conspicuously so as to not be confusing for consumers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Typical assets” at Harvard is 200k

00

Yes, and maybe even lower. So the deal of tuition free for <$200k income is more of a marketing thing than a real benefit for families making $150k-$200k.

This. They don't want to look elitist. But they already know that the number of families making $150-200K that have assets below $200K and applying to Harvard is very small.

This. They aren’t marketing to trust fund Gen X parents who have millions in assets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our NW is a couple of M. But income is below $200k. Would our kid qualify?

See for yourself. Use the college Net Price Calculators.

I thought I remembered when playing with numbers on the calculators that can put in 50,000 or even less for salary and as long as have “couple M” in assets shows parents able to fund 500,000 or more- so you’re toast.

This. I did the same when my kid was applying to colleges last year. If you have decent (not extraordinary, just reasonable) assets, you can forget about aid - and not just at Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Typical assets” at Harvard is 200k

00

Yes, and maybe even lower. So the deal of tuition free for <$200k income is more of a marketing thing than a real benefit for families making $150k-$200k.

This. They don't want to look elitist. But they already know that the number of families making $150-200K that have assets below $200K and applying to Harvard is very small.

I have retirement income of 500K+ and this did not negatively impact us per the NPC. It's a blessing that primary home NW and retirement aren't considered. If I had 200K outside of those assets, I would expect to pay as it's the fair thing to do. The vast majority of American families would benefit from this announcement, if they didn't already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do they look at your NW?

Of course they look at assets via the CSS Profile. Use their Net Price Calculator.

Never use it yet. Would NW 5 million, Income < 200K qualify? Ballpark.

I hope not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our NW is a couple of M. But income is below $200k. Would our kid qualify?

See for yourself. Use the college Net Price Calculators.

I thought I remembered when playing with numbers on the calculators that can put in 50,000 or even less for salary and as long as have “couple M” in assets shows parents able to fund 500,000 or more- so you’re toast.

This. I did the same when my kid was applying to colleges last year. If you have decent (not extraordinary, just reasonable) assets, you can forget about aid - and not just at Harvard.

This.

[Anonymous]

I think this is actually a little dumb. There are lots f places in this country where 200K is a ton of money, especially if you only have 1 kid. And also if one parent is SAH so you’ve never had child care costs They should adjust more for cost of living, because that has a huge effect on salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all the cynics
1) this is a lot of students: Harvard said more than 25% of Harvard families have total incomes less than $100,000 and for those making up to 200k, they said they will at a minimum pay tuition - and there is not a fall off cliff for the family making $210K as they
2) 55% of Harvard students are on financial aid - so no there is not a cliff. They note those making over $200k may be eligible
3) They don't count home equity. They do say they count assets. For those of you with $5m in assets, typically that would itself provide some type of income via dividends etc. but yes, it does appear that assets will be factored in. Would be strange if it was not that way but whatever.
4) The school is not perfect by any means but this is helpful for many and will provide pressure for their peers who haven't moved this far to come closer.

Your #3 is wrong. Use the calculators or go through process. They do factor in home equity.

The cynics just wanting the program to be more forthright. Think consumer rights laws that require advertisers to not say “free” this and that without having to give the conditions IN the ad itself clearly and conspicuously so as to not be confusing for consumers.

They might want to look at the TurboTax lawsuits!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do they look at your NW?

Of course they look at assets via the CSS Profile. Use their Net Price Calculator.

Never use it yet. Would NW 5 million, Income < 200K qualify? Ballpark.

Look, we can't help you if you're too lazy to fill out a form.

Net Price Calculator has you include all savings, retirement, dividends, homes, other real estate… if have 5MM net worth, think you’d be responsible to pay in full. Otherwise, all richy richy would just forego or defer salary for 4 years to not have to pay for the 4 years of college and then start salary back up after kid graduates.

So between now and when first DC would go to college I have reason to buy a LOT of stuff then to get my net worth down! Challenge accepted!!

You need to consume it, not just buy it.

And the overhead cost of doing so is more than just paying the tuition.

Easier to do than think to buy bunch of worthless stuff!

Question- what happens when divorced and if court order says parents will split college cost? Do schools say “student family can pay in full” if 1 parent has lots of $ or do they look at each parent separately so 1 amount for parent who is crazy rich and other amount for parent who has no savings and makes say <$50?

Colleges don't abide by court orders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Costs are going up. Inflation continues. Of course financial aid will also go up.

Interesting that Harvard felt the need to announce this, as if it's a change from business-as-usual.

Many families assume that the school is too expensive and don't allow kids to even bother applying to schools that are 90K annually, not realizing how financial aid works at schools with healthy endowments.

I’ll tell you how it works; if u make $300k HHI- you will have to pay the $90-95k/year in full

It's that agi, modified agi or gross gross

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our NW is a couple of M. But income is below $200k. Would our kid qualify?

See for yourself. Use the college Net Price Calculators.

I thought I remembered when playing with numbers on the calculators that can put in 50,000 or even less for salary and as long as have “couple M” in assets shows parents able to fund 500,000 or more- so you’re toast.

This. I did the same when my kid was applying to colleges last year. If you have decent (not extraordinary, just reasonable) assets, you can forget about aid - and not just at Harvard.

Usually you need at least 2 million assets to lose aid without income

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happens if your income increases for the next school year FAFSA application? Do they decrease your aid?

Of course.

This incentivizes people to keep their income low and/or be dishonest about assets. If you think CSS catches everything you’re wrong. People are very clever when it comes to qualifying for this kind of aid. I’ll also add the IRS does not routinely audit low income to moderate income families. All of this is to say, the system is rife with abuse. For those of you who dismiss this claim, I know multiple people hiding assets to get aid!!