Need-Based Financial Aid

Harvard University has a very generous need-based financial aid policy. According to the Harvard Office of Financial Aid website:

“All of our financial aid is awarded on the basis of demonstrated financial need—there are no academic, athletic or merit-based awards, and we meet the demonstrated need of every student, including international students, for all four years. We do not consider home equity or retirement accounts as resources in our determination of a family contribution, and aid packages do not include any loands. A typical student may receive over $15,000 in Harvard scholarship assistance over four years and the majority of students receiving scholarship are able to graduate debt-free. Our program continues to be generous for students across the economic spectrum, with more than two thirds of those receiving scholarship assistance coming form families with incomes greater than $60,000.”

Other needs-based schools, include:

• Amherst
• Brown
• Columbia
• Cornell
• Dartmouth
• Williams
• Princeton
• Yale

There are many more colleges and universities to consider. A good place to begin is with Kiplinger’s Best Values in Private Colleges, which compares the top 200 values in liberal-arts colleges or private universities.