Harvard Admissions Message Boards

Greenhydrolisk · Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 4

Hi,

Can anyone give me an idea of living costs?

Thanks,
Sam

HARVARD_Alissa · HARVARD STUDENT Joined: 02 Sep 2009 Posts: 47

Hi Sam,

As I wrote in a post in the Misc. section, living costs vary widely. Your main costs will be the room and board that are part of the overall tuition, and these provide you with your room and furniture, utilities, internet, and all three meals a day. Thus, you can choose to spend as much or as little money as you want on dining outside of the dining halls or on things like clothes or accessories or video games, etc. My biggest expenditure probably comes at the beginning of each semester when buying coursepacks and textbooks for classes (for me, several hundred dollars).

Hope this helps!
~Alissa

Greenhydrolisk · Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 4

Thanks Alissa that's great. So if one were receiving financial aid towards their fees, that would include basic living costs, aside from textbooks etc?

Thanks,
Sam

HARVARD_Jim · HARVARD STUDENT Joined: 02 Sep 2009 Posts: 24

Hey Sam,

I'm not sure what you mean by basic living costs, but financial aid covers everything that I would take that to mean-- room rent/food/utilities/etc. There are literally weeks that go by where I don't spend a single dollar. But of course if you eat out at a restaurant or see a movie or take the subway into Boston, etc. you will have to use your own money.

Hope this helps!
Jim

Imanek · Joined: 02 Apr 2010 Posts: 6

Hi,
I was wondering if you need to pay for your text books if you receive a full scholarship ?
Thanks a lot !

StephanieG · Joined: 29 Apr 2010 Posts: 4

I don't believe that text books are really covered with a full scholarship unless you are an athlete =)

Harvard_Stephanie · Joined: 21 Jun 2010 Posts: 4

Hi everyone,
To respond to the question about textbooks, unfortunately books and other personal expenses are not covered under the scholarship that Harvard provides you (and the same applies if you are an athlete; all our scholarships are need-based, so we do not have athletic or merit-based scholarships. You are expected to pay for these out of your expected summer and term-time student contribution. If you have any other questions feel free to let us know. Thanks!