Harvard To Throw Middle Class A Bone

[OhioChick]

Source: AP

POSTED: 2:53 pm EST December 11, 2007
UPDATED: 6:04 pm EST December 11, 2007

Harvard has announced a major expansion of financial aid with an eye toward helping the middle class.

The decision will cut tuition bills by thousands of dollars, even for families with six-figure incomes. The university said it will replace all loans with grants and spend up to $22 million more each year on aid.

Families earning less than $60,000 already pay nothing to attend the world's richest university, with an endowment of nearly $35 billion. Now, families earning between $60,000 and $120,000 will pay a percentage of their incomes, rising to 10 percent. Those earning between $120,000 and $180,000 will have to pay 10 percent of their incomes.

About half of Harvard students receive some form of aid, including students from about 100 families who earn more than $200,000. For those who pay full tuition, room and board, the price is $45,620.

Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/education/14824050/detail.html

[MannyGoldstein]

1. This Is A Very, Very Good Thing

Harvard (and many other colleges) have become unaffordable for middle-class families. I hope that other colleges do this - but none can afford it as easily as Harvard, with its $35 Billion endowment.

[jody]

2. Great policy change. Love or hate Harvard, their colleges are the best in the world and they've

given scholarships to many deserving students from humble or modest families.

Could Harvard do more? Absolutely!

Is Harvard doing more than most top tier research universities? Absolutely!

[Acadia Blue]

13. All these private school should help bright students regardless of

financial status. We are the only country in the world that does not value the most bight. The rich dumb pigs like Bush get an education that they waste.

[jody]

19. Agree! n/t

[Doctor Cynic]

3. I have a friend from China

who managed to get accepted into Columbia last year. However, he didn't go because he couldn't afford the 40K tuition. And seeing as he's Chinese, they wouldn't give him a dime in financial aid...

[Sarah Ibarruri]

4. Even for families with six-figure incomes?????????????? What on earth?

Does someone in the six-figure income now get considered as middle class? How many kids does that have to include?

[NashVegas]

5. $180k Max

And they'd pay $18k per year instead of $45k.

Families making under $60k, their kids get in on full scholarship.

I don't see why anyone would object, unless their family was making $181k.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

6. $180,000 is middle class now? Damn. I must've been asleep when that happened. nt

[OhioChick]

7. Me, Too.

:boring:

[Posteritatis]

8. The article *does* mention lower income ranges...

It's not talking exclusively about the middle class, despite the silly headline. The $180K figure looks like it's just the cutoff point where tuition owed is based as a fraction of family income.

I had no idea that they gave full coverage to people whose incomes were under $60K though. And swapping their loans for grants is just fantastic on their part.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

9. I guess I'm just trying to figure out.....

1) How someone who makes, say, $181,000 needs a "break" on tuition, the same as someone who makes $50,000.

2) This is not a break for the people who need a break unless the person who makes $181,000 has, what, 14 kids?

I guess there are just some things not meant for me to understand them.

[Posteritatis]

11. Err?

The article doesn't say someone with an income of $181,000 needs a break "the same" as someone who makes $50K. People under $60K are fully covered; people between $60K and $120K pay based on a percentage of their income capped at 10% - effectively a 75% scholarship at the high end of that - and people between $120K and $180K pay ten percent of their income - a 60% scholarship at the high end of that. Presumably people over that pay more/most/all of it.

On top of that, offering tuition breaks is simply good business anyway, and it's their money in the first place. If I could afford to pay Harvard's tuition out of pocket - ha, ha, ha - and they wanted to offer me a partial scholarship or some other form of assistance for attending anyway, Well Oh Gee Twist My Arm I Guess I'll Go To Harvard.

I'm really not seeing what's so offensive about this. They're doing a good thing here.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

12. After all their greed and their acceptance of dynasties of mega-rich like an exclusive club.....

I wouldn't use the word good to refer to them on any level. It's sickening that kids of the mega-rich have gotten in with bad grades, simply because their pappies had big money. That's ivy leagues for ya. Exclusive rich-people's clubs. Now they're pretending to be Mother Teresa by giving a few folks a little break. Oh please.

[Posteritatis]

15. Zeroing fees for people is a 'little' break now? (nt)

[dysfunctional press]

17. class envy is such an ugly thing...

you really should try to get past it- you'll find yourself a much happier person for it.

[mitchum]

18. Class war is such an ugly thing when it waged by only one side...

and concerned individuals scold anyone who attempts to fight it from the other side

[Sarah Ibarruri]

20. The creators of classes in the U.S. were not the Republicans or the Democrats......

However, the promoters of it *ARE* the Republicans, not the Democrats. The DENIERS that classes exist are also the Republicans, not the Democrats.

Now... what were you trying to say?

[dysfunctional press]

22. i wasn't "trying" to say anything...

i said it.

[dysfunctional press]

16. they're NOT getting the same break...

for someone who makes $50,000- it's FREE.

for those making 60k-180k, it's 10% of income.

i don't see why that's so difficult to comprehend...:shrug:

and for some families, a six-figure income would indeed still classify them as 'middle class'(especially in terms of the type of wealth represented in the student body of moist ivy league schools).

consider a family of 8, plus an aged grandparent with alzheimer's all living under one roof on the northside of chicago, or in another major metro area- a low 6-figure income would DEFINITELY not qualify them as "rich" in this country by any stretch of the imagination.

[Acadia Blue]

14. If you have 5 kids like my cousin and jointly earn 150,000 as they do

it is easy to send them all to community college or an inexpensive state college but with health care and house note and it all forget about really expensive schools.

[MadLinguist]

10. Question the timing. Why is this now being done and why is it now coming out?

I applaud them for opening up their pearly damn gates and all, but why are they making this appearance at this juncture? It's not as if Harvard was ever in the business of pretending that they offer education to the unwashed masses or even the suitably cowed middle class piles. So there is pressure coming from somewhere for some reason. I for one would love to know.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

21. I wonder about that as well. What's the real story? nt

[sofa king]

23. I might have a guess.

This university probably isn't on your map, but little Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA received $100 million from a single donor this year, most of it for a scholarship program for lower income (I should probably put that in quotes) students. With only about 1100 undergrads and a few hundred law students, W & L is set up for a long, long time.

A similar donation was made at about the same time to the University of Chicago.

There are several things going on here. The rich got immensely richer in the past seven years, and that's regardless of political affiliation. So right now there's a lot of money to be thrown around.

Another thing going on is that regardless of their traditions, upper-tier university administrative staffs are comprised of well educated, logically trained, highly competent individuals with an interest in education--in other words, Democrats. That's one reason why the right-wingers are constantly trashing colleges. They've even gone so far as to make their own hyperconservative schools, like Patrick Henry College, which has disproportionately staffed the Bush Administration with incompetent government officials.

But there's a third thing going on: competition, for both prestige and for the students who build that prestige. The United States has a wonderful tradition of higher education and literally hundreds of superb colleges and universities which all compete against one another for students.

Schools with highly conservative traditions like Washington and Lee--which finally allowed women to attend as undergraduates in 1985--found themselves facing a choice between catering to a dwindling and increasingly less competent pool of rich-kid legacy students--see our President--or broadening their reach in order to stay at the top of the list. So, the schools are changing, or they risk falling into total irrelevance.

The smart business choice is to draw quality students from all walks of life. So that's what they're doing, betting smart money on smart students, with the help of extremely successful benefactors.

The stupid money goes to Patrick Henry College.