Student Financial Services

The Student Financial Services Office at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (HKS) offers financial aid counseling to all students and encourages applications from those who are unable to fund their studies without assistance. Loan, scholarship, and work-study funds are offered to those students who meet eligibility criteria as established by the federal government and the Financial Aid Committee, consisting of representatives from the administrative staff. HKS fellowship and scholarship funds are awarded based on a combination of financial need and merit. Public service and other merit-based fellowships are awarded based on merit only. It is strongly recommended that students pursue outside funding, since HKS scholarship and fellowship funds are limited.

Paying for Graduate School—A Partnership

Financial assistance is a partnership. As our part of this partnership we will assist as many students as we can with our limited scholarship and fellowship resources. The students' part of the partnership is to eliminate consumer debt, maintain realistic expectations for standard of living as a student, investigate all possible sources of outside funding and save as much as possible. Even with this, attending will likely require significant borrowing. Only the student can decide how much debt can reasonably be incurred and still fulfill career objectives. Listed below are some key points students should consider as they plan to fund their graduate studies.

The Student Financial Services Office is committed to working with students to reach the shared goal of preparing them to take on positions in public leadership and to address public policy concerns. Prospective and currently enrolled students are encouraged to review the materials on this website and to contact us with any questions.

Limited Endowment

HKS has very limited scholarship and fellowship resources. At Harvard, each school maintains a separate endowment. Schools with long histories and numerous alumni have substantial endowments. Newer schools—such as the John F. Kennedy School of Government—have a smaller number of alumni and more modest endowments. Therefore, the majority of our scholarship funds are derived from current income and resulting in more limited aid at HKS than at schools. Our modest resources results in a limited number of students receiving scholarship funding.

Effects of Borrowing

For most students, paying for HKS comes from a combination of personal savings and educational loan borrowing. A student in the two-year MPP program with no personal savings might borrow as much as $127,000 to cover the tuition costs and living expenses.  At currently prevailing interest rates, this would result in monthly payments of $1,270 per month for 10 years. If a graduate were to devote 20% of his or her pre-tax income to making loan payments—an amount many would consider burdensome—the annual salary he or she would need to earn per year would be $76,200. This salary yields $3,000/month after taxes and student loan payments.

With many of our graduates committing to careers in public service, incurring $1,270 in monthly student loan payments can compromise their ability to commit to public service. 

It is often possible—and encouraged—to reduce the amount you borrow. Every $10,000 reduction to borrowing will reduce monthly loan payments by $100/month. Reducing borrowing is a function of minimizing expenses while attending school and eliminating any debt burdens the student may have incurred before attendance.

Loan Repayment Assistance

HKS—as part of our partnership with our students—offers assistance to its graduates who take modest paying positions in the nonprofit and public sectors through our Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP). However, funding is limited and eligibility is limited to a maximum of five years of assistance.

Budgeting, Consumer Debt and Credit Cards

Every year a few students enroll and discover that they have not budgeted sufficient funds to meet their expenses. Often this occurs because of a lack of awareness that some expenses and obligations that students have are not necessarily expenses that can be financed through educational loans and financial aid. It is therefore important to make a realistic assessment of what these expenses are to ensure that the student begins the program with sufficient resources. For example, credit card debt is not included as an expense covered by financial aid. Therefore, if a student has credit card debt, they should make every effort to pay off the balance.

Dependents

If a student brings their family, it is important to realize that federal regulations prohibit us from including the costs associated with dependents day-to-day maintenance in their expense budget. Therefore, the student must have sufficient savings to cover the costs that they will incur for this period.

Summer Costs

If a student is in a two-year program, they must be sure to account for the expenses that they will incur during the summer between the two years. We will not be able to increase financial aid nor allow the student to borrow for the summer period since this period is not part of the academic year.

Plan in Advance

In planning for graduate studies, it is important to begin well in advance if the student will be depending upon financial assistance to achieve educational objectives.

When making a decision whether to attend HKS, a prospective student should consider the following:

• Have I paid off all possible consumer debt?
• Do I have sufficient savings to cover expenses not included in the cost of attendance?
• Am I prepared to finance up to $127,000 in educational debt and understand that I may have student loan payments of $1,270 per month?