Harvard boosts student financial aid

Getting a Hahvahd education will soon carry a price tag of $0 for many students’ families (how do you like them apples?).

The Ivy League school yesterday announced plans to expand its financial aid for the 2025-26 academic year. Some notable changes:

• Tuition is now free for all students whose families make less than $200,000/year (up from $85,000/year currently).
• Students whose families make less than $100,000/year will also get food, housing, health insurance, and travel costs covered by the school.

One more thing: Families making over $200,000/year can also qualify for tuition aid, depending on circumstances like family size, area of residence, and amount of student debt.

The impact: ~86% of all US families fall under Harvard’s new guidelines for financial aid, according to the school, which is expected to support the program with its ~$50 billion endowment fund, the world's largest. Without aid, attending Harvard costs $56,600/year in tuition and $82,900 all-in (including fees and housing).

Big picture: Harvard is one of several top-ranked US universities to increase the amount of financial aid available to students in recent years. Stanford, Princeton, and UT Austin cover tuition for students whose families earn less than ~$100,000/year, while MIT, Caltech, and UPenn all recently bumped up their salary limits for free tuition to $200,000/year.