So in order to receive a grant you must take the "base loan" amount, which is around 45k. This leaves around 35k as the max aid that a person can receive. In order to receive that amount Harvard must assess both that your parental contribution is $0 and that your own contribution is $0.barrelofmonkeys wrote:Question: is there a way to approximate how much money we would receive in aid at Harvard? I think my decision to stay on the waitlist sort of depends on cost a little bit, and I'm wondering if there's any reliable way to gauge that.
The parental contribution outline is here: http://www.law.harvard.edu/current/sfs/ ... ytype.html
It takes into account parental income in combination with parental assets. There is some confusion as to whether or not it is assets or "assets minus liabilities" ie net assets. The income/asset limits were much more generous than I would have expected, but maybe my family is just poor.
The personal contribution doesn't take current income into account since you'll be foregoing it to attend, but it does take your resources into account. The student determination info can be found here:
http://www.law.harvard.edu/current/sfs/ ... ssets.html
Main contribution determination page:
http://www.law.harvard.edu/current/sfs/ ... urces.html
So your grant will be (COA) minus (45k base loan) minus (assessed parental contribution) minus (assessed student contribution). It's pretty formulaic; I was able to approximate mine within like 10% or so.
A few things:
-The resource assessments are simply that- what Harvard thinks you and/or your parents should and are able to contribute toward your education. So if they assess a parental contribution of 10k/yr and your parents don't/can't/won't pay that amount then you must take it in loans to meet the COA.
-The same applies to the student contribution- if you can't contribute what they determine you can then you'll have to take the difference in loans
-KEY DIFFERENCE- Loans taken to cover the assessed parental contribution are LIPP eligible; loans taken to cover the student contribution are NOT LIPP eligible.
-All of this takes place on a year-by-year basis, and you basically have to verify all of it in September. It is a hassle, and I haven't even gotten to the verification stage yet.
-There is a way to petition for exceptions to the "assessed contribution," so there is room for finaid to be awarded with some discretion, but like everything else with H (fee waiver, travel stipend) it is a hassle to do and not likely to benefit you unless you truly do have a real need/reason.
-There is some confusing info on the website that says something like "all students will automatically be assessed a 2500 contribution for the summer before 1L." Idk if they've changed it, but the way it read a few weeks ago made it seem like you were responsible for contributing that amount to your 1L tuition from your 0L summer. TripTrip mentioned that this is not the case, and he was correct. Don't get scared by the language on the website.
-Your grant aid gets reduced by around 16k for any summer that you take an SA.
I know this is more info then you asked for BOM, but once I started I thought I'd just finish typing it all out. Hope at least some of it is helpful : )
