In an interview, Summers noted that the differences between the schools defy easy generalization.

Some schools rely heavily on loans rather than grants—the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) offers 68 percent of its total aid as grants, while loans make up more than three quarters of aid at the business, law and dental schools.

Some mirror the College in considering only need in calculating aid packages, while other schools facing more intense recruitment pressures—GSAS, for example—offer scholarships and grants based entirely on merit, designed to woo the best students to Harvard.

Some schools, like the Graduate School of Education (GSE) offer a combination of both.

And the total amount of aid offered varies from $71 million at GSAS to under $10 million each at the dental, design and divinity schools.

Summers says he’s concerned with improving aid at all the schools. But one University source said Summers is likely to focus on schools in which large debts burden students in their future professions, and in areas in which the prospect of an eternal tab discourages some from even attending.

Loan relief for students who go into low-paying professions and public service is a therefore a top priority.

Joel C. Monell, dean for administration and academic services at GSE, said that the loan burden there is a severe problem.

While merit awards cover tuition for a majority of first-year doctoral candidates, support beyond that is insufficient, Monell said. “We’re nowhere near covering the needs of our students if you count in cost-of-living expenses.”

GSE calculates a cost of living for students of over $40,000, including tuition. The maximum entrance award is $32,000. The grant for those on full aid drops to $28,000 after the first year, and many students get much less than that, Monell said. The gap is filled by student loans—to the tune of $10 million a year.

The problem is, Monell said, “that students are going out to jobs that aren’t paying like a doctor’s or lawyer’s would.”

One result is that students are pressured to take term-time jobs off-campus, jobs that Monell said tend to subtract from educational experiences.

Monell said that he hadn’t heard any specifics of how GSE would be affected by a drive for increased aid across the University.

“We use the number of $10 million of unmet need,” he said. “I don’t really expect President Summers to say ‘OK, here’s the money.’”

At the Kennedy School of Government (KSG), administrators face a similar dilemma—how to fulfill the school’s educational mission of training students for important but often low-paying public service jobs.