Free Tuition at Top-Ranked Universities?
Harvard and other "elite" universities are under attack. One response has been a new tuition-free policy for families earning up to $200K—but it’s more about perception than real change.
Harvard and other Ivy League schools do not offer merit awards or scholarships.
They do offer need-based awards, but there is nothing new to see here -
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/03/harvard-expands-financial-aid/
“Harvard University President Alan M. Garber and Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Hopi Hoekstra on Monday announced that Harvard College will be free for students from families with annual incomes of $100,000 or less and tuition-free for students from families with annual incomes of $200,000 or less.”
More than a month after this announcement, there’s still buzz.
Kudos to Harvard’s PR department.
But, just to be super clear -
Harvard costs $82K a year, $56K of which is tuition and $26K of which is room/board + fees (link).
The *new* $200K cap - which has been the main focus of the press - applies to tuition, not the whole package.
There are no scholarships at Harvard - there are discounts (grants, aid) based on family income (e.g. what this announcement is about); all others pay full price.
Only 16% of Harvard graduates have any debt and the average amount of that debt is $17,940 (link). I think just about everyone I know would be willing to take on this amount of debt for a Harvard degree. Most would be willing to take on considerably more!
For comparison, the average debt balance of those taking out Federal Student Loans is $38,375 (link).
Harvard is very careful in their press announcement NOT to indicate how many actual students and families at their institution will benefit from this change. Rather, their vague statistics reference overall US family income.
Their announcement says “Harvard College’s annual financial aid award budget is $275 million for academic year 2025-26”. This is equivalent to 0.5% of their endowment. It would be as if your net worth was $1 million and you created a press release to call out that you gave $5000 to charity.
Harvard doesn’t have an affordability or student indebtedness problem.
So what problem is this announcement solving? Perception.
In the game of announcing something that seems like a big giveaway but actually costs little to nothing - a strategy credit - Harvard is clearly winning.
But Harvard is under attack by our own government in ways that I would say most people should be outraged by. And their response plan so far has been such a missed opportunity.
Really Meeting 100% of (Society’s) Need
The idea I would have celebrated - and for sure this is not a new idea - how about all undergrad Harvard students pay the same price? Free.
The difficult part is getting in!
There’s only a 3.5% acceptance rate, with >50,000 kids vying for <2,000 offers.
It’s not paying for college that’s an issue. But why even make finances something students and families have to deal with? It only muddies the waters. Make it a literal golden (crimson?) ticket.
Pre stock market turbulence Harvard had a $53 billion endowment balance, equating to >$2,000,000 per student (…and this includes grad students! Harvard has about 5K undergrads and >12K grad students!), so ability isn’t holding this back.
In fact, I’d extend this to all of the colleges in the list above, and perhaps even more… why can’t all of these schools offer free tuition + room/board + fees to all of their undergraduate students? They too can afford it!
The thing is… these higher ed institutions are missing the moment.
With higher ed under attack, particularly “elite” institutions, is there a better way to get the will of the people on your side than to offer something of incredible value - and a social good - for free?
Never was there a better time for them to turn the tables on the conversation about college affordability and the greater good of a college education.
Instead, we’re left with today’s system, which the Harvard announcement does not help.
What’s today’s system? There are close to 100 colleges and universities, including Harvard, that have programs designed to meet 100% of demonstrated need for low income families (link) and/or guaranteed to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need regardless of a specific income threshold (link).
But the “rules” vary widely between these institutions, making it very difficult for families that are in need of financial support to figure this out.
Whether the threshold at Harvard was $85K, $100K, or $200K isn’t the problem. It’s the fact that there’s ANY friction at all.
So, it’s not that there isn’t already a system in place… it is that the current system is too complicated and families can’t understand it.
https://www.nytimes.com/article/which-colleges-offer-free-tuition.html
“Sandy Baum, a nonresident senior fellow at the Urban Institute’s Center on Education Data and Policy, said that tuition has long been free for a large number of low-income prospective students. But students, and their families, often don’t know this.”
I’m very sure a message of “Get in. Pay nothing.” is clearer than the current explanation of income cut-offs and the like.
And who knows, maybe such a declaration by Harvard would cause other colleges and universities with similar means to follow suit and have no price tag whatsoever for an undergraduate degree.
Free tuition (and more) at top-ranked universities? Changing the conversation about how colleges help and benefit society?
That would be real change.