Comments on Harvard

A friend commented on Harvard's plan (see below), concluding:

In a few years, all top schools will be essentially free for low income students. It’s then up to KIPP, TFA, Green Dot and everyone else who cares about America to then supply these universities with the best kids we possibly can, no matter how rich or poor their parents are.

I agree -- and think these schools should be throwing major support behind these programs and genuine education reform in general, which they're not doing. 

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 I think you’re making a mistake in your assessment of Harvard’s financial aid initiatives. Sure, Harvard’s initiatives do nothing to compensate for failing urban school districts. But they do make Harvard more accessible, something that’s already happening, just three years into the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative. Since the HFAI was put in place three years ago, the number students from families earning under $60,000 per year has increased 33%, representing a quarter of the entering class of 2011. That makes Harvard much more economically diverse than when I was there (I graduated in 2002). I suspect Harvard is now much more economically diverse than in your days too.

Harvard is now in the midst of the third great push towards greater diversity that the university has undertaken in the last fifty years. First, they relaxed then eliminated quotas on Jewish applicants. Then the school integrated minorities and women in the sixties and seventies. But Harvard was still predominately a school for wealthy families, no matter the race. The recent financial aid initiatives will go a long way to extending Harvard’s diversity into economic diversity as well.

Beyond admissions, the no debt policy and the new reduced fees and eliminated loans for middle income families will profoundly affect career choice. Students will be much more likely to apply to TFA or to pursue other service oriented careers if they don’t have tens of thousands of dollars of debt hanging over their heads.

And the movement towards the elimination of loans for low income students is picking up steam at other universities – and fast. Princeton made the first move in this direction in 2001, and Harvard followed a few years after. Now, every month another college or university is announcing plans to eliminated debt for students from poor families. Since I’m on the board of a college scholarship fund for inner city kids, I track this issue very closely. A few months ago, I posted my list of no loan schools to Wikipedia, where other users have filled in the list with new schools. Here’s the page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_financial_aid

This is a real trend, and it’s accelerating. In a few years, all top schools will be essentially free for low income students. It’s then up to KIPP, TFA, Green Dot and everyone else who cares about America to then supply these universities with the best kids we possibly can, no matter how rich or poor their parents are.