Expenses at Harvard.

In the first article on this subject printed recently, the average annue expenditure is calculated, and at the end, Professor Palmer speaks of the high charges for room rent and tuition at Harvard, suggesting that it might be thought that this places a Harvard education out of the reach of the poor man. Continuing he says:-

"Still there is another side to the story. Thus far I have figured out the expenses, and have said nothing about the means of meeting them. Perhaps to get the advantages of Harvard, a student may need to spend largely but a certain circumstance enables him to do so,- I mean the matchless benevolence of those who have preceded us here. The great sums interested to us for distribution in prizes, loan funds and scholarships make it possible for our students to offset the cost of their education to such a degree that the not output of a poor boy is probably less than in most New England colleges. At any rate, I have asked a large number of poor students why they came to expensive Harvard, and again and again I have received the reply, I could not afford to go elsewhere."

"The magnitude of this beneficiary aid, I doubt if people generally understand, and I have accordingly takes pains to ascertain what was the amount given away this year. I find that to undergraduates alone it was $36,000; to members of the graduate department, $11,000; and to the professional schools, $6,000; making a total of assistance to students of the University of more than $53,000. Next year this enormous sum will be increased $13,000 by the munificent bequest of Mr. Price Greenleaf. Fully to estimate the position of the poor man at Harvard, we should take into account also, the great opportunities for earning money through private tuition, through innumerable avenues of trade, and through writing for the public press. A large number of correspondents tell of money earned outside of their scholarships. The immense aids provided for our students maintain a balance of condition here, and enable even the poorest to obtain a Harvard education. And what an education it is; how broad and deep and individually stimulating,- the most truly American education, which the continent affords."

Below are given several of the letters received from the students by Professor Palmer in answer to his inquiries.-

"I am very glad to do what I can to correct the statements of the news papers about the cost of living at Harvard. They are far from the truth. I can give my expenses within ten dollars, I am sure: freshman year, almost exactly $400; junior year, about $600; senior year, $750. Scholarships have always paid my term bills, and some thing more."

"My expenses for the past four years have been as follows: freshman, $550; sophomore, $650; junior, $625; senior, $750. This represents the actual amounts which have come into my hands. I received from the college one year a scholarship of $150 and $50 from the loan fund; another year, $350 scholarship and $75 loan fund; another still, $300 scholarship and $50 loan fund; from tuition, $250. The nest I obtained from extraneous sources."

"My annual expenses in Cambridge will be less than $550, not including a small spread which I will give Class Day. While I have not spent money needlessly, I have not pinched myself at all and have been fortunate in obtaining low-priced rooms. It is in this respect alone that Harvard is necessarily more expensive than many other American colleges."

"For the college portion of each of my four years my expenses have averaged $750. Allow me to say that this amount is much larger than is needed in my opinion to go through Harvard."

"I have had but $700 per college year as an allowance, with perhaps $50 as extras. It seems a small sum, but I have not felt pinched for money in getting any of the necessities of a comfortable life here. $750 is the outside limit of my expenditures here."

"I don't think that I could have gone through college and got along with a sum materially smaller than that which I have had ($1000 a year). In view of the small sum on which some men go through college, it may seem ridiculous for me to say this, but I do not consider that I have been extravagant, though in some cases I might have spent more judiciously."

"I have spent $1,200 a year; and I hardly need to add that much of it has gone unnecessarily, and that were I to pass through these years again I could easily and satisfactorily get on with much less."

"Dear sir- I regret to say that my college course will have cost me in round numbers $9,000."