Will Harvard Get Rid Of Tuition?

[Tugg Speedman]

Right now at Harvard:

* If a kid from a family that makes less than $65k, they don't have to pay
* If a kid from a family that makes less than $65k and $150km the average tuition is $12k (list price is $40k)
* As noted below, the school gives 70% of its students a break on tuition is some form.

So Harvard is most of the way to no tuition.

Question, if Harvard goes tuition free, the other large endowment will quickly follow (other Ivies, Stanford, Texas, etc.) how does this affect the rest of the schools down the line (like MU)?  Does it affect the rest of the schools?

College endowments:  Yard sale
Colleges with big endowments face calls to scrap tuition payments
Mar 26th 2016

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21695548-colleges-big-endowments-face-calls-scrap-tuition-payments-yard-sale

ON his deathbed in 1638, John Harvard bequeathed half of his estate, about £800 and his library of some 400 books to a new college in present-day Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard’s founders decided to name their new university for its first big benefactor. About 370 years ago the first Harvard scholarship to help “some poore scholler” was set up thanks to £100 donated by Ann Radcliffe. The university continues to be the beneficiary of generous donors. Last year, John Paulson, a hedge-fund investor, donated $400m to Harvard’s engineering school, its largest gift ever. Harvard has an endowment of $36 billion, the largest in the country. Last year it raised more than $1 billion. Some of its alumni think this ought to be sufficient to scrap tuition fees.

Harvard’s endowment is made up of 13,000 funds and is its largest source of revenue by far. Endowments are not usually used to lower tuition fees, but they can be used to provide scholarships and financial aid to students who cannot afford to pay (70% of students at Harvard get some assistance with fees and living costs).

[warriorchick]

"I got accepted into an elite college , but I decided to go  to Marquette because they had just as good of a financial aid package." - said no one ever.

[StillAWarrior]

I spent some time dealing with Harvard over the last few months, and their financial aid is actually better than your post suggests.  Although I'm not entirely clear if you're just talking about tuition or total costs.  If you're just looking only at tuition, even with a income of $150k, a family of four with one kid in college would be tuition free.  According to the Calculator on their website (which is a pretty good guide in most cases) such a family could expect $45,000+ in scholarship money -- which would cover tuition and fees.  This still leaves about $20k in room/board and personal expenses to cover, but that's an awfully generous package.  My daughter's situation was a little unique, so she ultimately made a different decision, but there's no question that Harvard gives far, far more "need-based" money than most schools (i.e., the definition of "need-based" reflects a much higher income level).

That said, there is absolutely no reason why a school should go totally tuition free.  As the endowment grows, they will keep increasing the income limits that qualify for "need-based" aid, but there is absolutely no reason they should stop accepting $65k/year from those who can write that check as easily as I buy a cup of coffee.

[WarriorFan]

I'd much rather pay $50k/year to avoid my kid going to the "communist in training" center at Harvard, even if it's free.
Name the last useful person you've met/worked with who's a Harvard grad?  If you know one, they're over 50, from when Harvard actually taught rather than preached. 

[Chicos' Buzz Scandal Countdown]

I'd much rather pay $50k/year to avoid my kid going to the "communist in training" center at Harvard, even if it's free.
Name the last useful person you've met/worked with who's a Harvard grad?  If you know one, they're over 50, from when Harvard actually taught rather than preached.

I can cite more than 3, between the ages of 30-40.

Which is their "communist in training" center?

[Chicos' Buzz Scandal Countdown]

I don't see why they'd get rid of tuition. Removing barriers for qualified applicants is one thing, but failing to capture any value for the institution makes no sense to me.