not feel the need to aggressively recruit more middle-income families.

Rudenstine Reacts

Addressing financial aid at length for the first time since Yale and Stanford announced their changes, Rudenstine said the University was still studying its options.

"I would say in all honesty...I am not sure that any of [the plans] is tailored well for us," Rudenstine said. "That doesn't mean we can be complacent--that's why we have a flexible system for the spring."

He affirmed Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles' pledge to keep Harvard's aid offers competitive with Princeton, Stanford, Yale and now MIT on a student-by-student basis.

"I wouldn't want to stand here and say nothing will happen," he said. "But if [a drop in students interested in Harvard] happens, it won't be for want of effort [on our part]."

Looking to the future, Rudenstine said that a University review of its own financial aid policies "clearly" should consider self-help changes on the model of MIT.

"The most important thing will be to look at the self-help burden on students," he said, adding, "Some people think our students work too hard."

Rudenstine said he did not expect to lose many prospective students to schools with reformed financial-aid policies this admissions season.

"We could be hurt," Rudenstine said, adding that it would be hard to pin a rise or fall in the number of students who choose Harvard based on financial aid changes.