Harvard Med implements new aid plan

Harvard University recently announced a new financial-aid plan for medical students, but it's not yet clear how widespread its effects will be.

In a plan outlined last week, Harvard Medical School committed an extra $3 million to its scholarship fund, an almost 40-percent increase from this year. It also pledged to eliminate the family contribution from its about $60,000 sticker price for families that earn less than $120,000 per year.

About 235 of the 700 students at HMS will be affected by the policy change.

However, the medical students will still have to take out loans of up to $24,500, according to The Boston Globe.

Unlike graduate students, who typically receive stipends and teaching positions to earn living expenses, medical-students generally rely on a combination of scholarships and loans to finance their educations.

The impact and reach of Harvard's decision, however, is difficult to gauge.

Officials at Penn's School of Medicine were unavailable to comment on if Penn would consider a similar aid plan.

"A lot of folks, unfortunately, from underserved communities, don't make it through the hoops to get to medical school," Dan Murphy, the legislative director of the American Medical School Association, said.

He added that the entrance process for medical schools, which involves exams and a solid undergraduate background, makes it harder for less-affluent students to attend medical school.

And once in medical schools, the loans students incur typically take an average of 20-25 years to pay off, Murphy said.

Whether the plan being implemented at HMS could spread to other professional programs, like law schools or MBA programs, is still unclear.

At Wharton, for instance, about 36 percent of the class of 2009 already received some form of financial assistance from the school, according to Jacqueline Zavitz, the senior associate director of Wharton MBA Admissions.

Most of this aid, she said, is distributed through targeted scholarships and fellowships meant to reach students from certain backgrounds.

Plans like HMS's aren't "at the MBA level yet," she said, adding that, "every graduate-school program is so different, I wouldn't necessarily extrapolate from one to the other."

While the ramifications of Harvard's announcement are yet to be seen, for students thinking about medical school the prospect of additional aid is welcome.

"Part of [the medical-school decision] is obviously if you think you're going to get in," said Engineering sophomore Niel Chen, who plans on attending medical school, adding that the school becomes "more desirable knowing that you're going to get financial aid."

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