How I afforded Harvard as a low-income student
Many people think it is impossible to get into the Ivy League. There is the common misconception that only geniuses, people who found nonprofits and cure cancer, or extremely wealthy people can get into schools like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. All too often, people don’t even consider applying to the Ivy League because they think there is no way they can get in, and no way they can afford it even if they do get in.
But nothing could be further from the truth. The Ivy League is full of normal, everyday people — people with normal IQs, people who didn’t cure cancer, and people from middle-class and low-income backgrounds. Most of us are just normal people who happened to plan for college exceptionally well. Planning is critical for getting into any top-tier college, and this is the reason why getting help from college mentors is so important.
In this respect, people from wealthier backgrounds are often advantaged. It would be remiss to pretend that the playing field is equal, because it is not. Ivy League schools strive towards equality, but at the end of the day, wealthier students are simply better prepared to attend universities such as Harvard or Dartmouth. Wealthier students have more resources for college planning. They often have access to expensive tutors, private schools, SAT preparatory courses, summer enrichment programs, study abroad experiences, sports coaches, and so on. And in this way, they often have a leg up in the college admissions process.
However, that does not mean that students from middle-class and low-income families should feel discouraged from applying to Ivy League schools. By working one-on-one with a current college student, there is no reason why a low-income student doesn’t have a good shot at getting accepted into an Ivy League school.
This seems baffling at first. It costs $65,609 to attend Harvard for one year, and that’s not even counting the cost of books and other personal expenses. At first, it seems utterly impossible for many families around the world to afford a Harvard education. And the tuition and expenses at other Ivy League institutions is also incredibly high, ranging from $50,000 to $60,000.
However, what many people don’t realize is that very few students actually pay the full “sticker price” listed on the website. For example, at Harvard 70 percent of students receive some form of financial aid. Families that earn under $150,000 would not be expected to contribute more than 10% of their income. And if families make less than $65,000, then they are not expected to pay anything at all.
All of the Ivy League schools offer extremely generous financial aid packages. The reason is simple. Ivy League colleges have incredibly large institutional endowments. Harvard University, for example, has an endowment of over $35 billion. As a result, these universities are able to allocate a significant amount of money towards financial aid. They are able to commit themselves to making sure that there are no financial barriers for middle-class and low-income students.
This all seems too good to be true. Surely Ivy League schools would rather admit students who come from wealthier families, and preference them in the admissions process. Again, however, this is untrue. All of the Ivy League schools practice need-blind admissions. Under this policy, every student is evaluated for admission with no regard to their ability to pay. Therefore, if there is a wealthy student and a low-income student vying for the same spot, the admissions committee would not take their financial backgrounds into consideration. They would treat the two candidates equally.
There is another lingering concern — these financial aid packages may seem very tempting, but would taking them mean that the student would have to pay back massive student loans in the future? The answer, again, is no. On Harvard’s website, it says: “You are not expected to take out loans as part of your financial aid package. Our aid packages are designed to cover your financial need without additional borrowing. In fact, most of our students graduate debt-free.” Other Ivy League institutions have similar policies. For example, Princeton abolished all student loans in 2001. Instead, they replaced student loans with grants. In this way, most students are able to graduate Princeton with little to no debt.
This may sound unreal, but I have found this to be accurate in my personal experience. When I was going through the college admissions process, I used a net price calculator to approximate how much I would be expected to pay at each university. To my surprise, I found that I would pay the same amount at my state university, the State University of New York (SUNY) as I would at Harvard, or any of the other Ivy League schools I was considering. And in fact, this is not the exception to the rule. Ninety percent of American families would pay the same or less to send their children to Harvard as they would a state school. During this time, I had been applying to outside scholarships. Suddenly, I realized that would no longer be necessary.
Once I had been accepted into Harvard, they sent me the financial aid package. It was every bit as generous as I had expected. My low-income family was able to send me to Harvard easily. The financial aid even covered things such as books, travel costs, and personal expenses. And as my family’s financial situation has changed throughout the years, so too has the financial aid package. It adjusts year after year to my family’s changing situation.
I will be graduating from Harvard in a few short months with absolutely no debt. I was not only able to afford a Harvard education, but I even benefited from generous scholarships and grants that allowed me to travel, work, and study abroad. The message is clear. As long as you are accepted into an Ivy League institution, they will do anything in their power to make sure that are able to attend.
Nian is a content creator @Mascot APP. She recently graduated from Harvard College.
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