kevin_hks Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 I do not think it worthwhile to pay for all the budget for a HKS education. It is NOT worthwhile, at all! I would decline it very soon. I do not think it valuable to keep an unfunded offer from HKS.
HKS_2018 Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 I also received the msg just now that I will not be receiving any funding. I can see why some of the members here feel the way they had written, but recall the admissions office's posting way back that as being one of the newer schools, they have a very small pot for financial assistance. Having observed the periodic blog posts, personal messages on admission letters, etc., I empathize with their challenges having to make decisions from that very small pot knowing that some of the non-receiving students will suffer with loans and what not. Try not to take it personally. I know there will be a large financial burden added to my family as well, but I still believe that it will be one of the best years of my life and that it will be worthwhile. Congrats to those who are receiving any assistance. I'll be accepting my offer for admissions. See you in Cambridge!
LizaBee Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 I am glad I have other offers with scholarships. I liked a recent recommendation to not go over $70k in debt for an MPP ($80k if certain want to go private) - even the prestige of a Harvard degree. Good luck to all making the final decision!!
kevin_hks Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 46 minutes ago, HKS_2018 said: I also received the msg just now that I will not be receiving any funding. I can see why some of the members here feel the way they had written, but recall the admissions office's posting way back that as being one of the newer schools, they have a very small pot for financial assistance. Having observed the periodic blog posts, personal messages on admission letters, etc., I empathize with their challenges having to make decisions from that very small pot knowing that some of the non-receiving students will suffer with loans and what not. Try not to take it personally. I know there will be a large financial burden added to my family as well, but I still believe that it will be one of the best years of my life and that it will be worthwhile. Congrats to those who are receiving any assistance. I'll be accepting my offer for admissions. See you in Cambridge! Are you surely accept the offer without any aid?? Anyway, I do not want myself being treated as a "Cash Machine"........ If I do not receive an aid, I would not considered myself as "truly qualified". Good luck!
Obecalp Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 Just now, kevin_hks said: Are you surely accept the offer without any aid?? Anyway, I do not want myself being treated as a "Cash Machine"........ If I do not receive an aid, I would not considered myself as "truly qualified". Good luck! That just seems like an extra burden to place on yourself. If you get in, you are qualified. If you decide it's not an expense that's worthwhile to you without funding, then that's your decision, but if they are only giving funding to 30% of applicants, it seems unfair to tell people (or yourself) that you aren't qualified if you're not in the top 30%.
vananhdo Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 Is 46k per year = 92k for total loan worth the MPP at HKS? Any thoughts? I am an international student so I think the HKS loan is max. at 15k per year only.
d4r56 Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 Received no financial aid from Harvard. No way in hell am I paying $162,000. As someone else mentioned, "I've been 'awarded' $81k in loans'"
hksMPA Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 No funding I am very disappointed in the school. If they truly want graduates to go into public service then they should take it upon themselves to reduce the financial burden. And, I think them being a new school is a bogus argument. The university has an endowment of $80 billion!!! Where there is a will, there is a way! If I decide to join without any funding, it will just force me to take up a consulting gig to payback the loan..and I don't want to be in a place where my post graduation career decision is solely based on monetary burden.
kevin_hks Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 31 minutes ago, hksMPA said: No funding I am very disappointed in the school. If they truly want graduates to go into public service then they should take it upon themselves to reduce the financial burden. And, I think them being a new school is a bogus argument. The university has an endowment of $80 billion!!! Where there is a will, there is a way! If I decide to join without any funding, it will just force me to take up a consulting gig to payback the loan..and I don't want to be in a place where my post graduation career decision is solely based on monetary burden. Cannot agree with you more.... HKS is making more money than HBS in tuition. The lack of funding is their beautiful excuse. I cannot figure out their true passion for the sake of public interest.... As a matter of fact, you are their ATM machines... or you can consider that they use the tuition from bottom 2/3 to support the top 1/3.... that is the truth....
kevin_hks Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 Just now, kevin_hks said: Cannot agree with you more.... HKS is making more money than HBS in tuition. The lack of funding is their beautiful excuse. I cannot figure out their true passion for the sake of public interest.... As a matter of fact, you are their ATM machines... or you can consider that they use the tuition from bottom 2/3 to support the top 1/3.... that is the truth.... Or you can consider like this: for all the unfunded applicants: If HKS has a full-coverage financial aid like WWS, you could not be admitted at all! They would charge you for the money you think the Harvard brand deserves...
datik Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 No funding either. Applying to national scholarship as a last resort
Obecalp Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 1 hour ago, hksMPA said: No funding I am very disappointed in the school. If they truly want graduates to go into public service then they should take it upon themselves to reduce the financial burden. And, I think them being a new school is a bogus argument. The university has an endowment of $80 billion!!! Where there is a will, there is a way! If I decide to join without any funding, it will just force me to take up a consulting gig to payback the loan..and I don't want to be in a place where my post graduation career decision is solely based on monetary burden. I don't want to underplay how much it sucks to not get funding (I didn't get any either and am really sad about it), but I don't think it's really fair to say it's a bogus argument, given how endowments work. Most of Harvard's endowment is restricted funding, so it exists in perpetuity, but can only be used for certain purposes (like building new buildings or scientific research) or for certain schools (most is for undergraduate programs). The people who are most likely to fund scholarships to the school are alumni, so the HLS and HBS have much larger endowments because the people going out of those schools make more and are able to donate more. The fact that it's a new school actually completely makes sense for them not having more money because they haven't had the number of years it takes to build up funds restricted to the Kennedy school.
kevin_hks Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 3 minutes ago, Obecalp said: I don't want to underplay how much it sucks to not get funding (I didn't get any either and am really sad about it), but I don't think it's really fair to say it's a bogus argument, given how endowments work. Most of Harvard's endowment is restricted funding, so it exists in perpetuity, but can only be used for certain purposes (like building new buildings or scientific research) or for certain schools (most is for undergraduate programs). The people who are most likely to fund scholarships to the school are alumni, so the HLS and HBS have much larger endowments because the people going out of those schools make more and are able to donate more. The fact that it's a new school actually completely makes sense for them not having more money because they haven't had the number of years it takes to build up funds restricted to the Kennedy school. If HKS fails to expand its financial aid coverage, its alumni fund would still shrink: the reason is pretty easy--the alumni used its earnings to repay their debt and no leftover for the donation......
kevin_hks Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 5 minutes ago, Obecalp said: I don't want to underplay how much it sucks to not get funding (I didn't get any either and am really sad about it), but I don't think it's really fair to say it's a bogus argument, given how endowments work. Most of Harvard's endowment is restricted funding, so it exists in perpetuity, but can only be used for certain purposes (like building new buildings or scientific research) or for certain schools (most is for undergraduate programs). The people who are most likely to fund scholarships to the school are alumni, so the HLS and HBS have much larger endowments because the people going out of those schools make more and are able to donate more. The fact that it's a new school actually completely makes sense for them not having more money because they haven't had the number of years it takes to build up funds restricted to the Kennedy school. The age matters, but no so much. consider the inflation in recent few years......
drumroll Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 no funding. But I agree with the view that HKS probably does not have too much to offer to begin with. But I also think they have to reconcile many policies from the University, the Kennedy School, the Centers and from the endowments themselves. So I wouldn't take their decision as some sort of implication on how qualified you are. It does seem odd to me, though, that there are so many people from the private sector for a school so focused on public value.
Obecalp Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 Just now, kevin_hks said: If HKS fails to expand its financial aid coverage, its alumni fund would still shrink: the reason is pretty easy--the alumni used its earnings to repay their debt and no leftover for the donation...... Just now, kevin_hks said: The age matters, but no so much. consider the inflation in recent few years...... That's actually just not how endowments work, though. I agree that they should be giving more funding. That doesn't change the fundamental nature of endowments. The inflation of the last few years doesn't affect how much they are able to give out restricted funds. It takes a long time to build up an endowment. Of their $35.7 billion endowment, Harvard gave out $1.7 billion last year. That's actually a lot for an endowment that is supposed to last into perpetuity. It means the endowment lost money last year, given that it had a 2% return on investment.
kevin_hks Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 11 minutes ago, drumroll said: no funding. But I agree with the view that HKS probably does not have too much to offer to begin with. But I also think they have to reconcile many policies from the University, the Kennedy School, the Centers and from the endowments themselves. So I wouldn't take their decision as some sort of implication on how qualified you are. It does seem odd to me, though, that there are so many people from the private sector for a school so focused on public value. because most of people who got into HKS cannot get into HBS. or they just want a Harvard degree for a short period of time (one year)
vananhdo Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 27 minutes ago, kevin_hks said: because most of people who got into HKS cannot get into HBS. or they just want a Harvard degree for a short period of time (one year) So how do you compare a non-Harvard top 10 - 20 MBA vs. HKS degree for private sector jobs? Looking at this amount of loan, I regret that I didn't apply for MBA this year.
kevin_hks Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 1 minute ago, vananhdo said: So how do you compare a non-Harvard top 10 - 20 MBA vs. HKS degree for private sector jobs? Looking at this amount of loan, I regret that I didn't apply for MBA this year. HKS is roughly equivalent to the MBA from Virginia, Georgetown, UNC,
vananhdo Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 3 minutes ago, kevin_hks said: HKS is roughly equivalent to the MBA from Virginia, Georgetown, UNC, How do you come up with this conclusion? I decided to apply for HKS because of the school mission that fits me well rather than an MBA. Unfortunately the cost is too high. MBAs from those schools seem not very compelling to me.
kevin_hks Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 1 minute ago, vananhdo said: How do you come up with this conclusion? I decided to apply for HKS because of the school mission that fits me well rather than an MBA. Unfortunately the cost is too high. MBAs from those schools seem not very compelling to me. The only thing I can tell you about HKS is that it is much less competitive than Wharton, Tuck, Fuqua or even Johnson.
hksMPA Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 1 hour ago, Obecalp said: I don't want to underplay how much it sucks to not get funding (I didn't get any either and am really sad about it), but I don't think it's really fair to say it's a bogus argument, given how endowments work. Most of Harvard's endowment is restricted funding, so it exists in perpetuity, but can only be used for certain purposes (like building new buildings or scientific research) or for certain schools (most is for undergraduate programs). The people who are most likely to fund scholarships to the school are alumni, so the HLS and HBS have much larger endowments because the people going out of those schools make more and are able to donate more. The fact that it's a new school actually completely makes sense for them not having more money because they haven't had the number of years it takes to build up funds restricted to the Kennedy school. I know how things work and that's why I resent what they are doing. It all boils down to what their priorities are! Endowment funds go for perpetuity but are rarely restricted in nature for renovations and stuff. Do you know that they are constructing a new building? I am sure that they must have prioritized that building construction over scholarships! A similar thing happened at my undergrad university. They had centennial celebrations so student scholarships were cut short! All sorts of things happen at university level. The honest truth is that they don't have the inclination to reduce tuition burden else they would have found a way to do it.
hksMPA Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 1 hour ago, Obecalp said: That's actually just not how endowments work, though. I agree that they should be giving more funding. That doesn't change the fundamental nature of endowments. The inflation of the last few years doesn't affect how much they are able to give out restricted funds. It takes a long time to build up an endowment. Of their $35.7 billion endowment, Harvard gave out $1.7 billion last year. That's actually a lot for an endowment that is supposed to last into perpetuity. It means the endowment lost money last year, given that it had a 2% return on investment. Do you know how this $1.7 billion was used? I am sure all of it was not used for scholarship purposes.
hksMPA Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 Also, don't feel bad about CPL. One of the current students told me that this year they had spots for only 4 Dubin fellows as compared to the usual 7-8 spots and there are almost similar reductions in other scholarships. And, for those 4 spots almost 400 people applied! So, I don't feel bad about CPL fellowships anymore.
kevin_hks Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 31 minutes ago, hksMPA said: Also, don't feel bad about CPL. One of the current students told me that this year they had spots for only 4 Dubin fellows as compared to the usual 7-8 spots and there are almost similar reductions in other scholarships. And, for those 4 spots almost 400 people applied! So, I don't feel bad about CPL fellowships anymore. I am also told that this year has less scholarship slots. It looks more like a trade－you use savings to buy a Harvard degree. That is it
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