“We wanted to take into account the fact that if you haven’t had the chance to take Kaplan courses, or your parents weren’t using three-syllable words at home, you would still have just as much to offer Harvard and take from Harvard education,” Summers said in an interview last month.

Brown said that Summers, whom he calls the “father of the project,” has maintained a high commitment to the initiative, adding that “we’re having a dinner with him in the next few weeks to discuss progress on the initiative.”

Brown also said Summers recruited Professor of Economics Caroline Hoxby ’88 to help compile statistics on applicants identifying how likely they were to have a low income and how likely they were to apply to Harvard.

“Professor Hoxby’s work [assessing the financial status of students] was immensely helpful,” Brown said.

Hoxby could not be reached for comment yesterday because she was traveling.

—Staff Writer Lauren A. E. Schuker can be reached at schuker@fas.harvard.edu.