This would come to an additional $943 perstudent, more than Stanford or Yale and far closerto Princeton's very ambitious package than undercurrent policies.

But according to administrators, students areunlikely to see significant increase in aid fromendowment funds in the near future.

The Layout and the Payout

According to the University's financial reportto the Board of Overseers--released lastNovember--and Dean of the Faculty of Arts andSciences (FAS) Jeremy R. Knowles' recent budgetletter, two-thirds of undergraduate financial aidfunding comes from the FAS endowment.

FAS's share is currently $4.7 billion of theUniversity's total $11.2 billion dollar nest egg.

As Harvard's coffers have swelled with theUniversity's capital campaign and the bull market,the dollar value of the 15 percent set aside forundergraduate financial aid has continued to grow.

But while Harvard's invested funds havefattened, the percentage payout of its endowmenthas not.

Last year alone, total endowment worth grewnearly 25 percent, a net gain of more than $2billion that far out-stripped the 7 percent rateof growth in the payout.

If markets continue to rise, the only way toreach a 4.5 percentage payout will be to increasethe actual sum extracted from the endowment at afar faster rate commensurate with the endowment'srapid growth.

Despite recent market growth, the University'scurrent plans for payout remain conservative.

Endowment payout has been set to rise 7 percentfor this year, FY '98, and 8 percent for the yearafter, according to Knowles' budget letter.

This means payout will rise from $161 millionto $172 million for this fiscal year and $186million in FY '99--not including additions fromthe capital campaign.

The bottom line? If the University sticks to aannual payout increase around 7 percent, Harvard'sfinancial gains will mean $2 million more forundergraduate aid each year for the near future.

Realizing Potential

But these millions could only be the tip of theiceberg for financial aid growth.