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Updated March 17, 2025, at 10:54 p.m.
Harvard College will be free for students whose families make $100,000 or less a year and tuition-free for students whose families make $200,000 or less annually, the University announced Monday.
The change — which a University press release described as a “significant financial aid expansion” — will take effect in the fall 2025 semester for all Harvard undergraduates, not just the incoming class of 2029.
Currently, students whose family income is $85,000 or less can attend Harvard for free, and students whose family income is between $85,000 and $150,000 a year are expected to contribute between zero and ten percent of their annual income, according to the College’s financial aid website.
The changes would make the approximately 86 percent of American households that earn less than $200,000 annually eligible for financial aid, the University press release noted.
But the profile of Harvard’s student body is significantly wealthier than that of the United States as a whole. According to the College’s financial aid website, 55 percent of undergraduates currently receive financial aid — meaning nearly half of Harvard undergraduates pay the full sticker price to attend. In the 2023-24 academic year, the total cost of attending Harvard College was almost $80,000.
Monday’s announcement is the most recent increase in Harvard’s financial aid offerings following back-to-back expansions in 2022 and 2023. When the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative began in 2004, students from families earning $40,000 or less annually received full aid. Since then, Harvard has increased the threshold four times — first to $60,000 in 2006, then again to $65,000 in 2012, to $75,000 in 2022, and most recently to $85,000 in 2023.
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The cost of attending Harvard has increased in tandem. In 2004, Harvard’s sticker price was just less than $40,000. Since then, the amount has nearly doubled.
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The new financial aid thresholds apply to households with “typical” assets. Harvard does not include a family’s retirement assets or equity in their primary home when calculating financial aid awards.
Students whose family incomes fall below the $100,000 threshold will now receive benefits designed for students receiving full aid — including a $2,000 start-up grant in their freshman year and a $2,000 launch grant in their junior year to help them prepare for life after graduation. Harvard will also cover their estimated travel costs between home and campus, winter gear, and event fees.
“This investment in financial aid aims to make a Harvard College education possible for every admitted student, so they can pursue their academic passions and positively impact our future,” Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra wrote in a press release.
The financial aid expansion comes as Harvard braces for a federal funding crisis. Harvard instituted a hiring freeze and rejected waitlisted Graduate School of Arts and Sciences applicants last week, and the FAS plans to keep its budget flat for the next fiscal year.
David J. Deming, a Harvard Kennedy School professor who has extensively studied higher education and social mobility, wrote in an emailed statement that the expansion was a sign of Harvard’s commitment to financial accessibility “even when times are tough.”
“Financial aid is very expensive, and Harvard’s financial situation is looking grim right now,” Deming wrote. “Even when it causes financial strain, we must continue to attract the most talented students in the world without regard to their ability to pay.”
Even before President Donald Trump took office, Harvard administrators spent a year struggling to contain a fundraising crisis and appease donor anger over Harvard’s response to Oct. 7. Contributions to Harvard’s endowment — a key source of support for financial aid — dropped by $151 million in 2024.
Harvard’s Monday announcement comes roughly two weeks before Harvard is expected to admit regular decision applicants for the Class of 2029. It follows similar plans to expand financial aid at MIT and the University of Pennsylvania this fall.
—Staff writer Cassidy M. Cheng can be reached at cassidy.cheng@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cassidy_cheng28.
—Staff writer Claire T. Grumbacher can be reached at claire.grumbacher@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @clairegrumbachr.
