Actually, no: If a student is able to gain admission to Harvard, the money is their in scholarships and grants for them to attend, IIRC.
Well, sir, what we have found in our family is that sometimes there is a very substantial shortfall, a distance between what grants, loans, jobs, parental help, and scholarship can provide, and what the costs of Harvard really are. My kids’ father and I could put together a financial package to put our daughter into a school that cost $35000 a year. We could not find the financing to pay more, and believe me, we were determined and imaginative in looking for sources of income. Some middle-income people, or people who have lost savings due to personal setbacks, can fall through the scholarship cracks.
There was a story about this in the Wall Street Journal just yesterday. Some schools are reaching out to help a bit, but none of them can bridge the gap for all the kids who just lost parental support due to the recession.