Despite Neugeboren’s claims that a commercial relationship between FAS and the Summer School does not exist, Harvard streamlines tuition costs between the two.
In raw total costs, Harvard Summer School ranked as among the most expensive top-tier Summer Schools in the country.
On a per week basis, however, Brown Summer School—which is one week shorter than Harvard’s—was more expensive.
Tuition costs for a single course at nine top-tier summer schools including Harvard averaged at about $2,295, ranging from a low of $1,750 for a course at Yale to a high of $2,782.50 for a course at Stanford. Charging $2,125 for two courses, Harvard prices were just below average and near the middle of the pack.
Neugeboren said that tuition rates for the Summer School are set according to prices for comparable services offered by the College during the year.
“It has to do with faculty and support staff salaries [for the summer], which are based on college salaries,” he said.
PRICE TAKERS
Although the Summer School costs more than comparable programs, Harvard has little difficulty filling its dorms and classrooms over the summer.
Not surprisingly, many students say that cost is not a factor in their decision to attend.
“It’s expensive, but you don’t get an opportunity like this every day,” said Mata R. Burke, a high school student in the Secondary School Program (SSP). “I just focused on the offerings [not cost],” she added.
Samuel D. Chamberlain, another student in the SSP, said that although he looked at several different summer programs including those at Northwestern and Stanford, he “didn’t pay much attention to the costs of other programs.”
The Summer School does offer some financial aid. Neugeboren said that most of the aid is awarded to local high-school students—who do not live on-campus or eat in the dining hall—in the form of tuition waivers.
“It is not a large percentage” of students, Neugeboren said, though he added that he did not know the exact number of Summer School students on financial aid.
—Staff writer Adam M. Guren can be reached at guren@fas.harvard.edu.