Black People May Not Benefit From Harvard’s Free Tuition

Source: Scott Eisen / Getty

Harvard University announced a “significant expansion” of its financial aid program this week, but who will these changes actually help?

In a statement released Monday, Harvard announced free undergraduate tuition for students from families with annual incomes of $200,000 or less. For students whose families have an annual income of $100,000 or less, in addition to free tuition, food, housing, health insurance, and travel costs will also be covered. The expansion, according to Harvard, “will enable approximately 86% of U.S. families to qualify for Harvard College’s financial aid.”

“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,” Harvard President Alan M. Garber said in a statement. “By bringing people of outstanding promise together to learn with and from one another, we truly realize the tremendous potential of the University.”

It seems like positive news, but this might be too little, too late for Black students at the school. In the first academic year to follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling that banned race-conscious admission in higher education, university paper The Harvard Crimson reports that new Black student enrollment at Harvard dropped from 18% to 14%. By contrast, Hispanic students’ share of new enrollment increased by 2%, while Asian American students stayed the same at 37%. 

Source: Boston Globe / Getty

The Crimson reports that deeper comparisons between the class of 2028 and other years is more difficult, since the school has changed the processes it uses for calculating demographics, and 8% of the student body refused to disclose their racial identity, a 4% increase from the previous year.

The Crimson also points out that most of the student body is wealthier than the rest of the University States. Of all undergraduates at the school now, 55% receive financial aid — meaning that 45% of the school’s undergrad students pay out of pocket. Last year, the average price for attending Harvard was about $80,000 – nearly double the amount of $40,000 in 2004, the year that school began its Harvard Financial Aid Initiative. The expansion announced on Monday is the fourth time the school has increased its threshold since then. It expanded from $40,000 or less to $60,000 in 2006, to $65,000 in 2012, and then had two back to back increases to $75,000 in 2022 and $85,000 in 2023.   

On a surface level, Harvard’s decision to expand its financial aid is a good one. If Black enrollment at the school continues its decline, they may continue some of the same systemic issues that the expansion is designed to remedy.

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