Harvard’s sticker price can be intimidating. 

If you are applying and the price is scary, know that most of us don’t pay it. Students whose families make $100,000 or less, with typical assets, have a zero parent contribution. This means that grant aid covers tuition, housing, food, health insurance (if needed), and other costs. About 1/4 of our students are in this category. Families making up to $200,000, with typical assets, can expect to have at least the cost of tuition covered by financial aid. Fifty-five percent of undergraduates receive some amount of aid. I’m one of them. This is what my experience with financial aid and other campus resources looks like day to day.   

August & January

You’ve got to fill up your dorm somehow. In your first year, Harvard offers the Start-Up Grant to students whose families earn less than $100,000. This is $1,000 each of your first two semesters to help cover costs associated with transitioning to campus, setting up dorm space, and more. I moved into my dorm by myself and flew to campus, so I couldn’t bring very many things with me. Instead, I ordered most of what I needed online and had it delivered. The Start-Up Grant curbed these costs and allowed me to get all the essentials: mattress topper, fan, pillows, etc.  

October

Also in your first year, eligible students are provided with $300 for winter gear you may need for the upcoming New England winter. If you are coming from a warm climate that doesn’t see snow and you don’t own a pair of pants or a winter jacket, Harvard has you covered. It can be spent on something other than a jacket or winter gear, but I do recommend investing in a good pair of winter boots. 

Friday Nights

The Student Events Fund (SEF) helps cover the price of tickets to events around campus: formals, shows, games, and the more exciting things about Harvard life. You request the ticket in the SEF portal, you pick your ticket up at the box office, and you go! The fund covered the cost of my shuttle tickets to New Haven for the Harvard-Yale football game in 2023. I have also used SEF for tickets to my house formals, dances that each house hosts every semester. 

Any Given Day

Every undergraduate on the meal plan gets BoardPlus. It is $65 per semester that is loaded onto our Harvard ID, and it works at any of the twelve HUDS cafés or three house grilles (e.g., Quad Grille). You can also use BoardPlus for guest meals in the dining hall. My two favorite locations to frequent are Lamont café and Harkness Dining Room at Harvard Law School. Lamont’s coffee is reliable when I’m hunkered down for midterms, and the Law School cafe has anything you could want, plus a great courtyard out front.  

Emergencies or Accidents

There’s also support available for circumstances that students do not see coming during the school year. Through the Financial Aid Office, the Beneficiary Aid Program can help students who receive aid with term-time emergency medical and dental costs. The program will also replace your broken glasses once in your time here. Separately, through the university’s health insurance plan, the Medical Hardship Fund can offset hospital or surgery costs for those facing something serious. I haven’t needed either of these, and I hope not to, but they are there if you do.  

Junior Year

Along with the Start-Up Grant given in your first year, students whose families have an income of $100,000 and below also receive a $2,000 Launch Grant in the fall of their Junior Year. This is for the next steps of life - most often used for interview travel and clothing, and test prep costs for graduate school. There are no restrictions on how the money is used, so students use it however they find useful for their post-grad planning.  

Other Costs

Those who are on financial aid will have a lot of their major costs covered. Every student has a term-time work expectation to help cover out-of-pocket, or unbilled, personal expenses. To cover this cost, and to gain experience, 80% of us work during the semester.  

Campus jobs are easy to find (the Student Employment Office is the best place to start) and they are easy to hold alongside classes. I was worried about balancing my academic work with a job, so I told myself that I would not work the first semester I got to campus. Yet I ended up with two jobs. I have had a series of jobs on campus since then, and they have all provided incredible value and direction to me and my time here. Through those experiences I have a better understanding of what my path post-grad looks like.  

If you are interested in applying and the cost of Harvard is on your mind, check out our Net Price Calculator for an estimate of what you and your family may be expected to contribute.