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In Inside Higher Ed, Donald E. Heller, a Penn State professor, notes that in late 2007 and early 2008, responding to pressure from Congress to stop sitting on so much of their endowments, “Harvard, Yale and several other highly selective universities enriched their financial aid programs to guarantee that students from families well up the economic ladder would get sizable grants to attend their institutions.”
It’s time to roll back these programs, Heller says. Looking at the numbers, it’s hard to disagree:
Harvard’s program, for example, guarantees that students from families with incomes between $120,000 and $180,000 pay no more than 10 percent of their family’s income to obtain a Harvard education ($180,000 puts one at about the top 10 percent of all families in the country). At this year’s cost of $52,000, this means that Harvard gives every one of these families a grant ranging from $34,000 to $40,000. Yale’s limit of $200,000 reaches families at the 95th percentile.
Few would argue that students from low- and middle-income families should not benefit from the sizable endowments still held by these universities. But no definition of “middle income” would include families in the top 5 or 10 percent of all in the nation.
Yes. Things are very different now, and with their vastly diminished endowments it’s difficult for colleges—even the most wealthy ones—to continue to be generous to those near the top without taking the risk of hurting those near the middle or bottom.
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Donald J Henry on November 06, 2009 7:17 AM:
Actually the $52,000 covers only about half the cost of a Harvard education so all of the students attending Harvard receive substantial financial support -- even the many who could well afford to pay in full.
no way on November 06, 2009 7:26 AM:
C'mon here. You fail to mention that students with incomes under 100,000 go to school for free. Would you like to set up a system where the family that makes 1,000 more than 100K pays full tuition, but the ones that make 99K don't. A family making 120K may be in the upper percentiles, but you don't think it would be a hardship for that family to pay 50K for 4 years (never mind professional schools) for an ivy league education? You don't think bright children will be unable to attend, because parents are unwilling or unable to pay that much money. I applaud these schools for using (their still huge) endowment money for something useful rather than the football team
Fraud Guy on November 06, 2009 10:42 AM:
This is not new.
Back in the '80s, at my midwestern liberal arts college (where tuition rose from $9K to $13K during my attendance), the admissions group was targeting "middle-income" families with annual incomes of $120,000-$150,000.