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

[Anonymous]

Do you really think they’re not counting any home equity? Even if you have a 5mm house?

I wouldn’t mind moving into a nicer place. Okay not a 5 mm place but if they don’t mind that kinda move, fine

[Anonymous]

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.

What? Not true at all. Business as usual is cost per child goes up for financial aid, but costs go up for full pay families as inflation rises.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Great news for many families.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/politics/harvard-free-tuition.html

Good way to get more applications to keep acceptance rate low and ranking high. That being said, schools with large endowments should be free to all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

So if you have 200k you can pay for 2 years. Then what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!!

Spoken truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!!

…true for all financial aid systems to ever exist

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

So if you have 200k you can pay for 2 years. Then what?

They expect you to pay 5% of that every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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!!

Spoken truth.

People always make these claims yet never explain how you would actually go about hiding these assets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you really think they’re not counting any home equity? Even if you have a 5mm house?

I wouldn’t mind moving into a nicer place. Okay not a 5 mm place but if they don’t mind that kinda move, fine

They ask for home value and mortgage amount so....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No thanks- havad ain't what it used to be. 25% of their MBA's are unemployed.

MBA = grad level.
Isn't this for undergrad??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!!

Considering how assets calculate into aid, I find this hard to believe.

Colleges generally expect 5% of non-retirement assets over a threshold amount (like a million or so) to be spent on college costs.

On the other hand, they expect parents to pay something like 30% of income over a threshold amount to be spent on college costs.

Assets are not a big driver of financial aid unless you have over a threshold amount in non-retirement assets.

They usually don't expect you to take out a second mortgage and they don't expect you to sell your small business.

You can optimize around the edges by doing things like some roth conversions to move non-retirement assets into retirement assets but that only works if your income is somewhat low.

I guess you can buy physical gold or things like that, the round trip bid ask spread is probably more than 5% but you would only pay it once I suppose, seems like a lot of trouble to hide assets from a financial aid office for 4 years.

Ultimately what drives parental contribution is income. If your income is 300K, you are probably close enough to full pay that it's just not worth the trouble.

If your non-retirement assets aren't at least 250K, it's probably not going to affect your financial aid.

[Anonymous]

oh just move all assets into a primary home?

you should def pay down your mortgage.

I honestly wish we would have bought a 2m house over a 1m house. Seems like they'd give us the side eye if we did it now, but if it knocked 50k off our college tuition (x 8 years of college tuition) it would have made sense and been nice!

[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.

Exactly, key is how many students below $200k get admitted, 85% family in the country are with income less than $200k.
On the contrary, MIT is really generous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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!!

Spoken truth.

A low income family will need to hide 1 mil plus in assets to not qualify for aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Really, though? There's not an insignificant number of people paying nothing. They're known for being affordable to people without assets. They look for people with disadvantaged backgrounds. It's not the Havad of yesterday.

Exactly, key is how many students below $200k get admitted, 85% family in the country are with income less than $200k.
On the contrary, MIT is really generous.