Harvard's donations increase dramatically in a matter of hours.

[Raftergirl]

10. Most of the money Harvard (and the other top schools) gives to their students comes directly from their

endowments, not the federal government. They can easily make up the difference. And institutional aid doesn’t not need to be paid back.

Students get very little from Pell and federal loans are capped at $31k over 4 years, so about $7500/yr. The Harvard COA is $86k/year.

Tuition alone is $59k a year and Harvard pays the full cost of that for families with incomes under $200k/ yr.

If under $100k/yr Harvard pays 100% of COA to those not eligible for Pell which ranges from $740/yr up to $7400/yr.) so most of the cost is already being paid for by Harvard, not the federal government.