THE ROAD AHEAD

According to Fitzsimmons, the admissions office is working to refine the HFAI program for current students and for future recipients.

“One of the things we wanted to work hard on was not to be too rigid,” he says in response to concerns that students whose families make just over $40,000 or just over $60,000 a year might not receive benefits comparable to the aid given to families earning slightly less.

The College is also planning to assign an adviser to all incoming freshmen who receive aid from HFAI.

Fitzsimmons says that the admissions office is also considering ways to expand the scope of Harvard’s financial aid program.

Over the summer, he says, the office will discuss how it will address the concerns of the “middle-income group”—that is, students whose families earn between $110,000 and $200,000 a year.

“If there’s a vulnerability for us, it’s with...the middle-income group,” he says.

According to Fitzsimmons, about 1,300 Harvard families make more than $100,000 a year.

The admissions office is already on its way to courting potential members of the Class of 2010. In the coming months, the office will send more than 70,000 letters to high-school students across the country.

—Staff writer Daniel J. T. Schuker can be reached at dschuker@fas.harvard.edu.