Financial Aid

Harvard admissions decisions are made without regard to an applicant's financial need. Once a candidate has been admitted, the Financial Aid Office considers the financial aid needs of the candidate. Thus, to be eligible for financial aid in a timely manner, applicants should apply for financial assistance at the same time as they apply for admission. Teacher Education students are eligible for the same financial aid as other Masters candidates at the Graduate School of Education, including grant funding, federal loan opportunities, fellowships, and work study programs.

In addition to these grants, loans, and work-study funding, three fellowships will be available to HGSE students in 2006-07: the Urban Scholars Fellowship Program for practitioners committed to working in urban schools; the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Fellowships in Social Entrepreneurship for students committed to confronting social problems in the United States and around the world; and the Zuckerman Fellows Program at Harvard University for students with backgrounds in business, law, or medicine who wish to engage in the public sector from an interdisciplinary perspective. For information on these fellowships, see HGSE Fellowships 2006-2007

For the entering class of 2006, 87% of TEP students received financial aid. 90% of those students received some grant aid. As of September 21, a total of $770,168 in grant money (including outside fellowships) was awarded to TEP students, as well as nearly $1.2 million in loans.

“Typical” Financial Aid Package for TEP students:

Subsidized Direct Loan	$8,500
Unsubsidized Direct Loan	$10,000
Perkins Loan	$6,000
Federal Work Study	$3,500
Need-based Grant Average	$6,500

Additional Awards/Scholarships:

Average Merit-Based Award	$23,755
Average Need-Based, Non-HGSE Award	$9,058

Outside Loans:

Average Additional Private Loan (HELP)

$14,080

In addition, both the Perkins Loan Program and the Direct Loan Program offer Loan Forgiveness Provisions for students who go on to teach in low-income schools, and in certain high-need subjects (Federal Student Aid website):

Perkins: Up to 100% loan forgiveness - 15% for the first year of qualifying, 15% for the second, 20% for the third, 20% for the fourth, and the remainder for the fifth.

Direct/FFELP Loans: Loan forgiveness of up to $17,500 for secondary math and science teachers who took their first loan after October 1, 1998 and before October 1, 2005; teach in a designated low-income school for five consecutive years; and are certified as a highly qualified teacher per the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

For more information about financial aid, as well as downloadable financial aid application materials, please visit http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~finaid/financial_aid.html. Information about fellowship programs is available at http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~finaid/fellowship.html