Harvard University · Massachusetts
Harvard scholarships and merit aid
Harvard does not offer merit-based financial aid — all Harvard-administered aid is based solely on financial need. Families with income below $100,000 (typical assets) pay nothing; families up to $200,000 pay no tuition. Harvard meets 100% of demonstrated need with no loans.
The short answer
Is Harvard worth a closer look?
Do not spend time looking for a merit scholarship here. Harvard says its aid is based on financial need.
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What families often miss
Harvard awards zero merit scholarships. The financial aid FAQ explicitly states: 'There are no merit-based awards.' All Harvard-administered aid is based solely on financial need, regardless of academic achievement, athletic talent, or extracurricular accomplishments.
Harvard's income thresholds are among the most generous in the country. Families earning up to $200,000 (with typical assets) pay no tuition. Families earning $100,000-$200,000 contribute 0-10% of income. Not filing FAFSA and the CSS Profile guarantees you pay full price.
See costs and school data
Who this school may work for
Families who need clarity that Harvard is not a merit-optimization target. A perfect 4.0 and 1600 SAT will not earn a merit scholarship here. Those credentials are table stakes for admission, and all financial aid is determined by what the family can afford to pay. If your household income is under $200,000, Harvard may be more affordable than your state flagship. If you do not qualify for need-based aid, you will pay full price (~$91,634/year in billed direct costs for 2026-2027).
- Tuition & fees
- Housing & food
Billed-cost scenario (matches input exactly). Indirect books/personal and range-based travel ($0-$5,000) plus separate health insurance omitted because published travel is a range that cannot sum exactly.
Cost and graduation facts
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Harvard, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
| Family income | Average net price paid |
|---|---|
| $0–$30,000 | $8,697 |
| $30,001–$48,000 | $2,991 |
| $48,001–$75,000 | $2,091 |
| $75,001–$110,000 | $9,941 |
| $110,001+ | $53,337 |
| All income levels (average) | $19,066 |
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
- Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
- $61,676
- Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
- $19,066
That works out to roughly a 78% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $85,540 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).
Outcomes for students who enrolled here
- Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort
- 98%
- First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
- 98%
- Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
- $14,000 (~$148/mo on a 10-yr plan)
- Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
- $101,817
- Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
- 20%
- Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
- 4%
See other scholarships and cost examples
If your student brings another scholarship
Outside scholarships first replace the student work expectation (~$3,500/year). Any excess reduces the Harvard scholarship dollar-for-dollar. Outside awards cannot reduce the parent contribution.
Harvard aid packages include a student work expectation of approximately $3,500 per year. Outside scholarships first replace this work expectation. Any amount exceeding the work expectation reduces the Harvard scholarship dollar-for-dollar. The parent contribution is not affected by outside scholarships. Outside awards primarily reduce the hours a student works, not what the family pays out of pocket.
More school data
From the Harvard Common Data Set 2024-2025:
As filed in Harvard's CDS Section H2A: of 1,638 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 4 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid, averaging $4,728. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 20 of 7,107, averaging $5,279. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.
Test-score figures below come from the 2024-2025 Common Data Set.
Harvard merit aid FAQ
Does Harvard offer merit scholarships?
No. Harvard explicitly states: 'There are no merit-based awards, and we have no preferential policies that give some students more attractive awards than others.' All Harvard-administered aid is based solely on financial need. There is no way to earn a merit scholarship at Harvard regardless of academic profile.
What does Harvard actually cost for families earning under $200,000?
Families with income below $100,000 (typical assets) have zero expected parent contribution; Harvard covers tuition, room, board, and fees. Families earning up to $200,000 pay no tuition. Between $100,000-$200,000, the expected parent contribution scales from 0% to approximately 10% of income. Over 55% of Harvard students receive financial aid, with an average grant exceeding $76,000 per year.
How does Harvard handle outside scholarships my student wins?
Outside scholarships first replace the student work expectation (~$3,500/year). Any amount beyond that reduces the Harvard grant dollar-for-dollar. Outside scholarships cannot reduce the parent contribution. This means outside awards primarily reduce the hours a student works on campus, not what the family pays.
See sources and other schools
How Harvard compares
- 145 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use loan-first displacement.
Harvard is in a recognizable cluster (145 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
Sources used on this page
Every claim is checked against Harvard’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
- Policy pageHarvard stacking policy
- Common Data SetHarvard Common Data Set
- Cost of attendanceHarvard cost-of-attendance worksheet
Compare with similar schools
- Mount Holyoke merit aid. Massachusetts private school — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.
- Smith merit aid. Massachusetts private school — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.
- BU Wheelock merit aid. Massachusetts private school — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.
- WPI merit aid. Massachusetts private school — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.
Keep exploring Harvard merit aid
- Harvard scholarship stacking. Whether outside awards land as upside or quietly displace institutional aid.
- Does Harvard displace outside scholarships?. The dollar math on a $5,000 outside award, plus peer schools that handle it differently.