“We’re hoping that awareness of this financial aid program will be helpful in encouraging students in middle school and the later stages of grammar school to say, ‘it certainly is possible to go to a place like Harvard,’” he said.
To fine-tune its long-standing policy of giving a boost to applicants who have faced financial challenges, the admissions office has launched an effort to use ZIP code data to gauge students’ socioeconomic backgrounds more effectively, Fitzsimmons said.
Even though Harvard already has more detailed economic information for every applicant available through financial aid forms inside Byerly Hall, Fitzsimmons said Harvard’s “need-blind” policy prevents admissions officers from viewing that financial data when considering applications to the College.
But he said the Admissions Office is now using statistics on applicants’ neighborhoods to ensure that the Class of 2008 represents a broader range of socioeconomic diversity.
“You can tell a lot often by a person’s zip code,” Fitzsimmons said. “We can determine in a rough kind of way if students come from a socioeconomically disadvantaged background.”
The University’s move to reduce the parental contribution drew praise from students.
Aidin E. W. Carey ’07, a prospective history and literature concentration in Grays Hall, said the lighter financial burden on her family would allow her to devote more time to extracurricular activities, instead of working longer hours during the academic year.
Carey said the changes might allow her to work as a research writer for the student travel guide Let’s Go this summers. Without the changes, she said she would likely have had to stay home and take a higher-paying—but less educational—summer job.
Carey’s experience reflects the conclusions reached by University officials this fall after a series of focus group sessions with financial aid recipients.
According to Donahue, the focus group effort revealed that the burden of the parent contribution was being shouldered by students.
“Like many students today, I made up the parent contribution myself by working extra hours every week and taking out student loans,” said Fitzsimmons, who received financial aid as an undergraduate at Harvard four decades ago.
Many of the focus group participants also pledged to participate this summer in a new effort to reach out to students from low-income families.
According to Fitzsimmons, the new effort would be modeled after the Undergraduate Minority Recruitment Program, which he said operates primarily in the fall.
Summers characterized the financial aid changes as part of Harvard’s two-pronged effort to address the widening gap between rich and poor Americans.
“There are two aspects of this problem. Both are critical. The easier one—though still a very challenging one—is assuring that those with disadvantaged backgrounds see that they have a chance to go to Harvard and other great universities,” Summers said in an interview.
“The greater challenge is to work on the pipeline and assure that everyone—regardless of their background—gets a chance to prepare themselves for success,” he said.
In his Miami speech, Summers emphasized the University’s recent efforts to reach out to local students from low-income backgrounds.
In December, Harvard announced the creation of the Crimson Summer Academy, set to begin this July, which will bring 30 high-achieving students from area schools to Harvard for classes and college advising.
Each student will receive a $3,000 college scholarship upon completion of the three-summer-long program, in addition to a $200 weekly stipend during the program to replace summer job earnings.
—Staff writer Daniel J. Hemel can be reached at hemel@fas.harvard.edu.