Your kid mebbe kin go to Harvard fer free...

[Okla-homey]

If your family earns less than $60K per year. Additionally, you get reduced tuition and fees if your family earns between $60-80K. That's because fair "Hah-vahd" considers a family earning less than $80K "underprivileged." I'm not sure how I feel about that, but there it is.

Therefore, you hillbillies get ta checkin' yer family tree to see if'n any high school honor students shake out who otherwise qualify for admisssion to this here establishment bastion and historical king-making institution. If'n they is smart, and poor, they're IN like Flynn and won't pay a dime!

Anyhoo, Harvard hopes this move will mitigate its reputation as home to a bunch of elitist bastages and bastagettes.

Of course, the Harvard "room and board" part is probably pretty substantial, but that shouldn't be a problem to forego because kids from families earning less than $60K are used to living in a cardboard box under an overpass and eating carp from dumpsters or tossed-out from cars...and stuff.;)

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/daily/2006/03/30-finaid.html

[Frozen Sooner]

Awesome.

I don't find those incomes too outrageous. A two parent family with a kid making $60k per year is living pretty close to hand-to-mouth these days.

[Mjcpr]

Awesome.

I don't find those incomes too outrageous. A two parent family with a kid making $60k per year is living pretty close to hand-to-mouth these days.

If our kid was making $60k, we'd be in hog heaven.

[Sooner Born Sooner Bred]

I had the privilege to meet a beneficiary of this program. Liz Murray was the subject of a Lifetime movie called Homeless to Harvard.

[fadada1]

according to the left wing libs (or maybe it's the right wing), if you're making less than $60K/year, you're not smart enought to attend harvard... or college for that matter.

[Sooner_Bob]

If our kid was making $60k, we'd be in hog heaven.


Shoot. I've got two and that extra $120k would be awesome.

[Frozen Sooner]

If our kid was making $60k, we'd be in hog heaven.

:D

[Okla-homey]

<belushi>How much for the little girl?

[KC//CRIMSON]

That's actually pretty cool. My ex-wife is a Harvard Law school graduate and her tuition plus room and board was roughly $60,000 per year. Lucky for her, loans, grants, and scholarships helped pick up a third of that cost.

[soonerscuba]

Heh, I guess they are going to dip out of that $22b endowment to let some of their roughly 5,000 students, whose parents make less than 60k go to school for free. Although a nice gesture, they aren't exactly taking a hit on this.

[12]

Anyone else over that line wondering, "Geeze, I suck as a provider..."

I do fairly well, but am by no means wealthy. How did freaking $60K become a poverty line?

And really, unless there is an AMAZINGLY SPECIALIZED DEGREE in whatever they are going after, why send them there?

I mean, surely SWOSU offers a similar program, right?

[skycat]

Anyone else over that line wondering, "Geeze, I suck as a provider..."

I do fairly well, but am by no means wealthy. How did freaking $60K become a poverty line?

And really, unless there is an AMAZINGLY SPECIALIZED DEGREE in whatever they are going after, why send them there?

I mean, surely SWOSU offers a similar program, right?

For an undergraduate, I don't think that there's much advantage in what you would be able to learn. I do believe that there is a benefit just in putting the words "Harvard graduate" on your resume. Now I don't know if that benefit would be worth paying full tuitition and fees or not, but once that starts to come at a discount, I can see the benefit.

[12]

I really don't see the label making that much a difference in today's world. How many incredibly successful people do you know with an Ivy League degree?

I guess if you are getting into law or politics, it would make a big difference. But for those of us in the real world, it really doesn't matter that much.

I've been asked to produce my degree as proof ONCE since graduation. It was as a mid-manager of a plasma donation center on 23rd. So obviously, if you can stick a vein or flash-freeze some druggie's white cells, an art degree is required.

[12]

Wait, was that last part out loud?

[skycat]

Honestly, I've seen talk where a person got his/her degree when hiring decisions were made. Like I said, I don't know how to quanitfy it, but if my kid could go to Harvard or to Texas State University for the same cost, it would be a no-brainer as to where I'd want him to go.

[Mjcpr]

Honestly, I've seen talk where a person got his/her degree when hiring decisions were made. Like I said, I don't know how to quanitfy it, but if my kid could go to Harvard or to Texas State University for the same cost, it would be a no-brainer as to where I'd want him to go.
So are you going to tell us?

[soonerboomer93]

Hell, I make more then 60k, with no kids

sometimes I think it's still not enough

and then other times I just have to say, wtf am I doing, I have way too much disposable income

[Frozen Sooner]

Hell, I make more then 60k, with no kids

sometimes I think it's still not enough

and then other times I just have to say, wtf am I doing, I have way too much disposable income

Yeah, I spend a lot of money on stupid stuff as well, but still-I can't imagine it being easy to support three people on $60k per year.

[GottaHavePride]

I do fairly well, but am by no means wealthy. How did freaking $60K become a poverty line?

The other thing to remember here is Harvard's location. 60K is by no means a poverty line, but you're thinking in terms of Texas prices. Think about how big your house is and what it costs. A house that same size will cost about 3 times what you paid for it along the east coast. $60,000 a year to support 3 people at those kinds of prices isn't going to stretch all that far.

[Frozen Sooner]

Boston housing prices are freaking NUTS. True dat.

[soonerboomer93]

Yeah, I spend a lot of money on stupid stuff as well, but still-I can't imagine it being easy to support three people on $60k per year.

Oh, I'm sure it's not that easy at all. My problem is I don't really have anything major to spend my money on. My car is the US is paid off, housing and car here are paid for by the company. I paid off my new laptop in like 5 payments, even when I calculate in my student loan payments and credit card payments (all made well above the minimum) I have a less then 20% debt to income ratio.

[Frozen Sooner]

Jeez, my car isn't paid off and I have a mortgage payment and mine's only like 30-35%. I have no idea how people survive with 50-55%-which isn't that uncommon.

[soonerboomer93]

oh, things were much worse for me at my previous job. I still had money to **** around with, but I was making like 36k. That was ok money, but I don't understand how people can make it on less then 36k.

[Vaevictis]

I do fairly well, but am by no means wealthy. How did freaking $60K become a poverty line?

Harvard isn't saying that it's a poverty line. They're just saying that they're going to extend free tuition to people below that line.

If you look at Harvard's tuition, it's estimated to be $15k/semester. A family at $60k/yr would have quite a bit of difficulty affording that.


And really, unless there is an AMAZINGLY SPECIALIZED DEGREE in whatever they are going after, why send them there?

I mean, surely SWOSU offers a similar program, right?

SWOSU graduates don't have the same opportunity to build connections that Harvard graduates have. The "elite" Ivy league's value proposition is not so much the education you receive, but the people you meet. It's a lot easier to get ahead in life if there are several thousand very wealthy alumni who you can interact with through your university, assuming you know how to work those connections.

[soonerboomer93]

it's all about money and power, with those, you can buy everything else

[12]

The other thing to remember here is Harvard's location. 60K is by no means a poverty line, but you're thinking in terms of Texas prices. Think about how big your house is and what it costs. A house that same size will cost about 3 times what you paid for it along the east coast. $60,000 a year to support 3 people at those kinds of prices isn't going to stretch all that far.

Obviously, you haven't seen my house and boot-shaped hot tub.:)