When calculating a student's financial need, the Financial Aid Office uses a standardized analysis formula to determine the expected family contribution. Financial disclosure is made via several financial aid application documents, including the U.S. Department of Education's Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the Need Access Application (incoming students) and the College Scholarship Service's Financial Aid Profile (returning students). The calculated family contribution is then subtracted from the cost of attendance for the year to arrive at the amount of financial need:

Cost of Attendance minus Family Contribution equals Financial Need

Cost of Attendance

The 2008-2009 financial aid calculation assumes a total cost of $62,900 for a first-year student. This includes $39,900 for tuition and $23,000 for all other fees, supplies and living expenses. This cost is recalculated annually and varies by year in school. There are no separate budgets for married students because support for dependents is part of the expected family contribution; school-administered funds are only available to meet the expenses of students.

Family Contribution

In order to be considered for institutional grants and loans, all applicants must supply parent financial information - regardless of age, dependency, marital status, tax status, or prior history of financial independence. In extreme cases, e.g. when the whereabouts of a parent is unknown, the Committee requires that the situation be documented by a third party professional: clergyman, attorney, social worker, family physician or other professional with personal knowledge of the family. Please refer to the Petition for Waiver of Non-custodial Parent Financial Information for more details.

* Note: Students who anticipate that parents will not provide the full expected parent contribution must plan in advance how they will finance an education at HMS without this support. Institutional funds are not available to replace an absent expected parent contribution.

Consideration of Parent Contribution

Harvard Medical School requires parent financial resource information from all applicants who are applying for institutional funding. A parental contribution will be calculated using standard institutional need analysis policy, and then adjusted according to the following scale: