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Harvard Says Tuition Will Now Be Free For Families Who Make $200K Or Less

Harvard Says Tuition Will Now Be Free For Families Who Make $200K Or Less

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Nowadays, it seems that everything is expensive. In fact, it not only seems this way, but it puts quite a financial strain on some people. Not being able to afford certain things, even important ones, like education, for instance, becomes more and more common.

Luckily, recently, prestigious universities, where education costs a pretty penny, decided to make their criteria for free tuition more flexible. To be more specific, they raised the threshold of what kind of income must they have in order for a student from it to qualify for free tuition. Among these schools are the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the most recent addition — Harvard University.

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    When everything is getting more and more expensive, some American universities decided to make their criteria for free tuitions more flexible

    Image credits: drobotdean / Freepik (not the actual photo)

    One of these schools is the prestigious Harvard University — recently they announced that now all students coming from families who make $200,000 or less can get free tuition

    Harvard University announced that starting from the upcoming academic year, they will be giving free tuition to all students, who come from families making $200,000 or less. 

    This means that people from about 86% of American families can now qualify for free education in a university that is considered to be the most elite in the world as of 2025. 

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    Additionally, students who come from families making $100,000 or less will also qualify for free housing, food, and health services. 

    Image credits: Clay Banks / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

    As you can imagine, this is a big deal since annual tuition for Harvard isn’t cheap – for the 24/26 academic year, it was $56,550. But that’s excludes things like health services, housing, student services, and such; with them the cost becomes $82,866. So, it’s not something everyone can afford, even if they’re an excellent student.

    Before this, Harvard used to offer free rides for low-income students and free tuition for those coming from families making at most $60,000 (in 2006) or $40,000 (in 2004). 

    Harvard University president Alan M. Garber said that they decided to incorporate this new rule in their policy as (paraphrase) “a way to widen the array of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives students bring and encounter.” Essentially, by bringing diverse promising people together, the university hopes to foster their intellectual, and personal growth and “realize the tremendous potential of the University”. 

    They’re doing so in order to bring people from more diverse backgrounds, so they could foster each other’s intellectual and personal growth

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    Image credits: Pixabay / Pixabay (not the actual photo)

    While this news gives talented students a better chance to be able to study at this prestigious university, it still stands as one of the hardest places to get into. According to College Advisor, Harvard’s acceptance rate is 4.64%. For instance, nearly 60,000 applicants applied for the class of 2025, but only under 2000 of them were accepted. 

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    For a class of 2026, the early admission rate was 7.87%, meaning that out of 9,406 applications 740 of them were accepted. While regular decision candidates haven’t received their notifications yet (it’s supposed to come by the end of March), the overall acceptance rate for this class is still unclear. 

    What’s also unclear is what percentage of the student body will qualify for free tuition with the new qualification criteria. What’s clear is that this new rule is supposed to help at least a handful of students. 

    This means that now people from about 86% of American families can qualify for Harvard free tuition

    Image credits: Matthis Volquardsen / Pexels (not the actual photo)

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    Besides, Harvard University isn’t the only place offering free tuition based on income, there’s a whole list of them, including such names as Stanford, Princeton, and plenty of others. Some institutions, such as the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have recently raised the ceiling for free tuition eligibility to families earning less than $200,000. 

    American agricultural scientist and inventor George Washington Carver said “Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom”, so we hope today’s news will provide deserving individuals with access to said education.

    As some netizens pointed out, is a great news not only for those people, but also for education overall, as this school is known to attract brilliant minds

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    Poll Question

    How do you feel about Harvard's decision to offer free tuition for families earning $200K or less?

    It's a great initiative

    It's a step in the right direction

    It should have been done sooner

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    Ugnė Bulotaitė

    Ugnė Bulotaitė

    Writer, BoredPanda staff

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    I am a writer at Bored Panda. I have loved creating and writing down stories about people and things since I was little and I think this passion led me to get degrees in sociology, communication, and journalism. These degrees opened various paths for me, and I got a chance to be a volunteer in the human rights field, and also try myself out in social research and journalism areas. Besides writing, my passions include pop culture: music, movies, TV shows; literature, and board games. In fact, I have been dubbed a board games devotee by some people in my life.

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    Ugnė Bulotaitė

    Ugnė Bulotaitė

    Writer, BoredPanda staff

    I am a writer at Bored Panda. I have loved creating and writing down stories about people and things since I was little and I think this passion led me to get degrees in sociology, communication, and journalism. These degrees opened various paths for me, and I got a chance to be a volunteer in the human rights field, and also try myself out in social research and journalism areas. Besides writing, my passions include pop culture: music, movies, TV shows; literature, and board games. In fact, I have been dubbed a board games devotee by some people in my life.

    Rūta Zumbrickaitė

    Rūta Zumbrickaitė

    Author, BoredPanda staff

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    Hi! Nice to meet you~ I'm very passionate about animals, especially cats, photography, small DIY projects, music and so much more! Could say I am the TV show The Office connoisseur since I have seen it at least a dozen times~

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    Rūta Zumbrickaitė

    Rūta Zumbrickaitė

    Author, BoredPanda staff

    Hi! Nice to meet you~ I'm very passionate about animals, especially cats, photography, small DIY projects, music and so much more! Could say I am the TV show The Office connoisseur since I have seen it at least a dozen times~

    What do you think ?
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    Heffalump
    Community Member
    13 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    People in the US make such a big deal about Harvard. Here's a fact: if you can't get in on merit, you can still get in if you have a parent who is an alumnus, on staff, or makes a big donation. And you will still be able to graduate even if you lack the ability to get in on merit. That means that, at least at an undergraduate level, the courses are undemanding enough that everyone can complete them successfully.

    Offbeat Quinoa
    Community Member
    18 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Wow! If it wasn’t in the US, I’d totally go to Harvard 😅 (I’m Canadian and after what happened to Jasmine Mooney, I’m not comfortable travelling there anymore, I don’t want to go to jail lol)

    Load More Comments
    Heffalump
    Community Member
    13 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    People in the US make such a big deal about Harvard. Here's a fact: if you can't get in on merit, you can still get in if you have a parent who is an alumnus, on staff, or makes a big donation. And you will still be able to graduate even if you lack the ability to get in on merit. That means that, at least at an undergraduate level, the courses are undemanding enough that everyone can complete them successfully.

    Offbeat Quinoa
    Community Member
    18 hours ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Wow! If it wasn’t in the US, I’d totally go to Harvard 😅 (I’m Canadian and after what happened to Jasmine Mooney, I’m not comfortable travelling there anymore, I don’t want to go to jail lol)

    Load More Comments
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