Harvard to offer free tuition for families earning less than $200K

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Harvard announced that starting next school year, tuition will be free for students from families with annual incomes of $200,000 or less. Schooling will be completely free for students from families with annual incomes of $100,000 or less. 

What they're saying:

Administrators said the goal is to make Harvard more affordable to more students, particularly from middle-income families.

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"Putting Harvard within financial reach for more individuals widens the array of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives that all of our students encounter, fostering their intellectual and personal growth," President Alan M. Garber said in a news release. "By bringing people of outstanding promise together to learn with and from one another, we truly realize the tremendous potential of the University."

Why you should care:

The university said the new initiativeexpansion will help nearly 86% of families in the U.S. to qualify for Harvard College’s financial aid.

Dig deeper:

For students whose family income is $100,000 and below, the exapnsion will cover all billed expenses including tuition, food, housing, health insurance, and travel costs. 

Students will receive a $2,000 start-up grant in their first year and a $2,000 launch grant during their junior year to help support their post-Harvard life. 

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For students with family incomes of $200,000 or less, they will receive free tuition and additional financial aid to cover billed expenses, depending on their financial circumstances. 

Students with family incomes above $200,000 can also be eligible also receive aid based on their circumstances.

Big picture view:

New research indicates students are paying significantly less to attend public universities than they were a decade ago. And tuition increases at private colleges have finally slowed after years of hefty rises.

Figures compiled by the nonprofit College Board indicate the average student attending an in-state public university this year faces a tuition bill of $11,610, which is down 4% from a decade earlier when taking inflation into account. But the real savings come in what the average student actually pays after getting grants and financial aid. That’s down 40% over the decade, from $4,140 to $2,480 annually, according to the data.

Meanwhile, at private colleges, tuition continues to rise, but at a much slower rate. It has increased 4% over the past decade, when taking inflation into account, to an average $43,350, according to the College Board. That’s a big change from the two decades prior, when tuition increased 68%.

Costs are coming down as Americans question whether college is worth the price. Surveys find that Americans are increasingly skeptical about the value of a degree, and the percentage of high school graduates heading to college has fallen to levels not seen in decades, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.