Costs

Harvard Medical School tuition rates are reset annually and cover courses taken from August 1 through June 30 each year up to the final year of enrollment ending with graduation. Tuition is billed by semester. Two forms of term bill payment are available: payment in full by semester or monthly payments (payments for the year are spread over eight months). The monthly payment plan carries a service charge of $35 per semester.

An estimate of yearly expenses shows that the average cost for an unmarried first-year student will be approximately $66,600 for the 10.5-month academic year 2009-2010. This estimate includes tuition, health service fee and insurance premium, room and board, books, travel, transportation to clinical sites, laundry, and incidentals. Students whose homes are outside the northeast region of the United States may experience travel costs beyond the scope of this estimate.

Students who opt for the 5-year program or whose time for meeting degree requirements at Harvard Medical School exceeds eight semesters and who have paid eight semesters of full tuition will be assessed a reduced tuition charge for each semester of enrollment beyond the eighth. This reduced tuition is expected to be $2,450 per semester in 2009-2010.

Tuition and Fees for a First Year Student are as follows:

Financial Aid

The decision to attend a high-cost, private medical school should involve the entire family, as the primary responsibility for financing the education falls on the individual students (and spouses, if married) and their parents. Our financial aid office strives to help students meet any shortfall of funds after the maximum financial effort has been made by the students and his/her family. In academic year 2008-2009, the Financial Aid Office administered financial assistance to approximately 75 percent of the student body.

The application process for financial assistance is separate from the admissions process. The Committee on Admissions follows a long-standing policy of selecting candidates without regard to the candidate's ability to pay for medical school. Candidates selected for admission or the wait-list will then be invited to apply for financial assistance and will be sent the necessary application forms.

The Financial Aid Committee awards financial assistance solely on the basis of financial need and availability of financial aid funds; no merit-based scholarship awards are offered.

Financial Need

When calculating a student's financial need, the Financial Aid Office determines the expected family contribution by analyzing the family's financial disclosure according to a national formula. This 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 calculated family contribution is then subtracted from the estimated total cost for the year to arrive at the amount of financial need:

Standard Budget - Family Contribution = Financial Need.

Student Expenses
For 2009-2010, eligibility for financial aid is based on the cost of attendance for a single first-year student of $66,600. This includes $42,500 for tuition and $24,100 for all other fees, supplies and living expenses. The cost varies by year in school, and there are annual increases due to inflation. There are no separate budgets for married students since support for dependents is taken into account when determining the expected family contribution; School-administered funds are not available to meet expenses for individuals other than the student.

Family Contribution
To be considered for institutional grants and loans, the Financial Aid Committee requires all applicants to supply parent financial information, regardless of age, dependency, marital status, tax status, or prior history of financial independence. Stepparent data is also required if parents have remarried. In extreme cases, (e.g. when the whereabouts of a parent is unknown), the Committee requires that the family's situation be documented by a third party professional, such as a clergyman, attorney, social worker, or family physician who has personal knowledge of the family.

NOTE: Students who anticipate that parents will not provide the full expected parent contribution must plan in advance how they will finance Harvard Medical School without this parental help. It is Harvard Medical School policy not to replace an absent expected parent contribution with institutional aid.

Program Eligibility Criteria

There are several need-based scholarship and low-interest loans administered by the HMS Financial Aid Office. These include the HMS Scholarship, HMS Revolving Loan, Wolfson Loan, and federal Title VII programs for disadvantaged students. Parent information is an important component in determining eligibility for these programs.

Applicants who choose not to provide parental information may be still considered for the following programs: Federal Direct Stafford/Ford Loan, Federal Perkins Loan, and the Federal Work-Study Program (FWS). A non-federal, commercial market-rate student loan is also available; this program does not require applicants to demonstrate creditworthiness, and is available to all HMS students. While it is possible to meet virtually the entire cost of attendance through these loan programs, this is not encouraged due to the heavy debt burden that would result at graduation.

Packaging Financial Aid Awards:
The Unit Loan

Harvard Medical School uses a policy known as the Unit Loan concept to package financial aid awards and assure that high-need students have priority for scholarship funds. The Unit Loan is a package of loans offered to meet financial need before any HMS scholarship is offered. A student's financial need must exceed the total unit loan before the student is eligible for scholarship aid through HMS:

Financial Need - Unit Loan = HMS Scholarship

For the 2009 incoming class, the Unit Loan is $24,500. A student whose computed need exceeds $24,500 will be offered HMS Scholarship. The cornerstone of our loan package is always the Federal Direct Stafford Loan (fixed interest rate at 6.8%), which meets up to $8,500 of need. The Perkins Federal Loan and various low-interest loans (interest of 5-7%) are used to meet the remaining loan need up to our unit loan amount. While in school, interest does not accrue and payments are not required.

SPECIAL NOTE: The federal portions of the Unit Loan require that a recipient be a U.S. citizen or a permanent U.S. resident. Aid from federal programs will be removed from the financial aid packages of international students. Harvard Medical School financial aid funds are then awarded to help meet this gap.

Each entering class is assigned a unit loan amount prior to matriculation. This unit loan amount will remain fixed for the duration of their enrollment at HMS. The unit loan changes in composition from one academic year to the next depending upon available funding levels. The Financial Aid Committee reserves the right to adjust the packaging of late applicants when funding is limited.

Outside Awards
Scholarships obtained by the candidate from sources outside of Harvard are used to replace the loans in a student's aid package (starting with the least favorable loan). Upon request, students may use these funds to replace expected parent contribution instead of reducing loans.

Financial Aid Application Procedures

Harvard Medical School uses the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the College Scholarship Service's Financial Aid Profile service as key components of the financial aid application. Students who anticipate needing financial aid are urged to file FAFSA and Financial Aid Profile forms as soon as possible after January 1. These forms are available on-line at: www.fafsa.ed.gov(HMS Title IV School Code E00472) and https://profileonline.collegeboard.com (HMS Code 3445).

Candidates accepted or waitlisted for admission are sent the remainder of the financial aid application materials in March. Required documents include parent and student tax returns. Families are urged to complete their tax returns early, as financial aid awards cannot be prepared until all financial aid application materials have been received. If financial aid is a key factor in your decision to attend HMS, you must file as early as possible.

Sample Cases

Applying the policies described above, the following shows two types of financial aid awards: