Monday, November 29, 2010

Free ride to Harvard?

There's an e-mail making the local rounds saying that Harvard University has just decided to offer free tuition to students whose families earn less than $60,000 a year.

You haven't seen a news story because the decision was actually made about five years ago, according to Harvard's financial aid office. A staffer said the office is getting calls from across the country, as the e-mail has gone viral.

The basic information is sound: Students who are admitted pay nothing if their family income is less than $60,000. There's a sliding scale for incomes from $60,000 to $180,000.

The catch is you still have to get into Harvard, and that's no easy feat. But the message is a good reminder that extraordinary students may be able to get a top-notch private education without taking on a massive debt burden. A growing number of such schools, including Davidson College closer to home, have shifted to covering financial need with grants instead of loans, saying it helps them get the best students regardless of family wealth.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Har har. Anyone who's anyone knows that Yale is the place to get oneself a free education. Peasants.

Anonymous said...

AH, THAT SETTLES THE PREVIOUS BLOG.

CMS should use $60,000 as the upper threshold for Economically Disadvantaged.

Bolyn McClung
Pineville

Anonymous said...

Oh Muffy, I am so angry over Harvard allowing the poor to be educated. However, I suppose even our gardeners and cooks must be educated.

Anonymous said...

"Oh Muffy, I am so angry over Harvard allowing the poor to be educated. However, I suppose even our gardeners and cooks must be educated."

I see somebody is still bitter they only made it through one semester of community college. I guess your logic goes like this; Harvard=rich=snob because you and your friends are more like; HVAC class at CPCC=$9 per hour=totally awesome

Anonymous said...

Ahhh, Harvard allowing the average poor idiot to attend, how "White" of them to do so. I guess even Harvard must have their tokens.

Anonymous said...

"I see somebody is still bitter they only made it through one semester of community college. I guess your logic goes like this; Harvard=rich=snob because you and your friends are more like; HVAC class at CPCC=$9 per hour=totally awesome"

This is perhaps one of the most arrogant and reprehensible attacks on working class people I have ever seen. This is the result of a Harvard education? Hate the working class, despise those who do little things that make life better for you! Harvard's plan is so thinly veiled even the average working man with no education can see through it.

Anonymous said...

Bolyn,

The scale goes up to $180,000, $60,000 is not the cap. That's just when it starts to reduce, apparently gradually if it take them to get to $180,000 to cut it off.

I think CMS probably cuts off well below $60,000! What's your point?

Lynne Stevenson said...

Wonder if that offer also applies to Harvard Law School or just undergraduate programs? Have always wanted to attend Harvard Law School, but could not afford to mortgage everything I own. Bad enough that it costs about $100,000(or it did a few years ago)to attend USC Law School in Columbia. Heaven forbid if USC, UNCC, or UNC-Chapel Hill follow suit. I might be able to afford law school after all.

Anonymous said...

Response to Anonymous about my wonderful $60,000 HA-vard inspired cap.

I take may cue from Jerry Reed's great country hit, "When You're Hot, You're Hot".

The part that has to do with CMS is after Jerry is thrown into jail for 90 days by a judge that is a "good ole fishin' buddy".

Jerry sings,
Who gonna collect my welfare?"
(When you're hot, you're hot)
"Pay for my Cadillac?
Whadda you mean 'contempt of court'?"
(When you're hot, you're hot)

So many folks don't understand the lunacy in the past of using FRL numbers to create a CMS budget.

Not all poverty is recreated equally. Some suffer and some wouldn't have it any of way.

Bolyn McClung
Pineville

Gail said...

In England people are protesting because their $5,000 a year tuition is going up to $15,000. I wonder how many colleges in the US cost $15,000 a year.

Anonymous said...

Davidson College was the first to do it. Read about the Davidson Trust.

Anonymous said...

My sibling still owes me for making me sit through a 3 day graduation ceremony at Yale including a long standing tradition where every graduate lights up an expensive cigar between marches to end apartheid in South Africa - Biff and Buffy trying to make a difference in the world. At least Yale didn't stockpile cyanide pills in the student health center in case of a nuclear attack caused by the Reagan administration. Because why have your skin fall off like the rest of the masses when you're a student at Brown?

Poor sucker had to slum it a state law school along with the little people who attended my public state university.

OK, I love my brother and he deserved to attend this prestigious institution. He did manage to procure enough grant money through Yale so it didn't cost him anymore to attend here than UConn. What can I say? The beauty of Ivy League universities with huge endowment funds.

Why isn't the Observer's Taylor Batten (Harvard, class of ?) putting his 2 cents in here?

Pamela, where are you?