Harvard Students Awarded Fewer Federal Pell Grants

Harvard enrolled the lowest percentage of Pell Grant recipients out of the nation’s highest-ranked universities last year, according to a study published in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE).

The Pell Grant—a government program—awards federal financial aid packages of up to $3,750 a year to students from low-income families.

Fifteen percent of undergraduates attending the nation’s top 26 universities are Pell Grant recipients.

At Harvard, the study found, 6.6 percent of students in the 2000-2001 academic year were Pell Grant recipients.

“We don’t know why there is such a variation in percentages of low income students at the nation’s top schools,” said Bruce Slater, the managing editor of JBHE.

But Sally C. Donahue, Harvard’s director of financial aid, called these figures misleading.

She said the study included students at the Harvard Extension School, who might only be enrolled in a few classes, and that the percentage of undergraduate recipients at the College itself is closer to 9.3 percent.

More than one half of all recipients come from families with incomes of less than $15,000 a year. These grants are not awarded to students with family incomes above $35,000 a year.

Donahue said the JBHE study did not take into account the differences between Harvard and many of the 25 other schools surveyed.

“When you compare Harvard to larger schools like UCLA, it’s really like comparing apples to oranges,” she said. “Larger universities have several students who qualify for financial independence, whereas Harvard primarily attracts dependent, full-time students.”

The JBHE article also said that Harvard’s competitive applicant pool puts low income students—who typically score lower on standardized tests—at a disadvantage.

“The Harvard admissions office needs to make a greater effort to recruit low income students,” Slater said. “If other top schools have been able to enroll low income students, then why not Harvard?”

But Donahue said the College has made a vigorous effort to attract low-income students to the campus.

“We have to try to ascertain whether or not a student is prepared enough and can make it academically,” she continued. “If students have been unable to perform in high school, I don’t think it makes sense for us to admit them.”

She also noted that Harvard admissions is need-blind and offers its own grants to students in addition to federal programs.

The article also noted that, since blacks are three times as likely as whites to come from families living below the poverty level, data on Pell Grant recipients provides indirect information about the number of black students at a given school.

A different study in JBHE this fall found that Stanford University surpassed Harvard in black student yield for the first time in 20 years.

But Donahue said Harvard the numbers do not represent a failing on the part of the College.

“In the world of highly-respected colleges, we do pretty well with attracting and enrolling a higher percentage of minority students,” she said.