Harvard College pre 1860: Financial Aid & Elitism

AN EXPLORATION OF HARVARD’S AFFORDABILITY AND STUDENT BODY POPULATION IN CONJUCTION

WITH RELIGIOUS ATTITUDES OF THE TIME

Harvard College pre 1860:Financial Aid & Elitism

Harvard’s FoundingDuring the Great Migration, there were

130 Cambridge graduates that settled in New England Harvard College began with Puritan ideals in mind

55 of the first 100 graduates were sons of Puritan ministers or magistrates, both professions that positioned their families in the community’s elite

Founders, though wealthy, were intent on education being accessible to “poor but hopefull Scholars whose parents are not able to comfortably maintain them”

Roughly 30% of students in 17th and 18th centuries relied on public aid or wealthy patrons to support education

Donor: Ann Radcliffe (1576-1661)

Namesake of Harvard’s former women’s affiliate college, Radcliffe College

Widowed by the well-established merchant Thomas Moulson of London in 1638 Radcliffe and Moulson were both devout Puritans who gave generously to church, and had also endowed a free grammar school

Ann Radcliffe (Cont’d)

She inherited quite a bit of money upon her husband’s death, but also proved to be a savvy businesswoman and philanthropist in her own right

Provided loans to several large corporations, most notably the East India Company and the Crown itself

The third wealthiest member of her parish, Radcliffe gave generously to a number of initiatives, including towards the hiring of a lecturer for the parish

In 1643, she gave £100 to Thomas Weld, overseer of the newly founded Harvard College

Ann Radcliff (Cont’d)

Her scholarship was the first scholarship established at Harvard, and was the second gift to the fledgling college

Donation stipulated it be used for “yearly maintenance [of a] poor scholar” who is “pious and well-deserving”

Keeping in line with the times and Harvard’s Puritan ideology, the first financial aid gift is thus steeped in religious undertones

Robert Keayne

Country judge and wealthy Boston businessman

Charged and convicted for his capitalistic nature of business (taking “excessive profit” was illegal at the time) and fell out of the good graces of the Church

As detailed in his 1653 will, Keayne left funds to support needy scholars; these students were given roughly 20-40 s. a year

Keayne’s gift to Harvard can be seen as a show of support to the Puritan church after his embarrassing scandal left him in the church’s outer circle

Change & Growth

In 1710, 16 of 39 students were receiving aid amounting to more than half of tuition, room and board

However, the College’s growth from 50 students in the early 1700s to 150 by the Revolution could not keep up with financial aid donations Partly due to donors giving more readily to book funds,

buildings, and professors v scholarshipNeedy scholars begin delaying entry to college in

order to make money to afford it In the 1750s, ~9% delayed entry until at least 21 years of age By 1790s, 20% delaying entry

Shift to Elitism?

Harvard’s total assets in 1800 was $250,000; figure rose to $1,250,000 by mid century

By 1850s, only 6% of students delaying education– Harvard is populated even more by wealthy elites, despite having more assets than every other college Harvard tuition continues to rise while financial aid

decreases Tuition in 1807- $20 Tuition in 1845- $75 Tuition in 1860- $104 Including room, board, and living expenses, cost of Harvard in

1860 totals more than $300– More than what the ordinary laborer earns in a year

Shift to Elitism? (Cont’d)

1826- member of the Board of Overseers declares Harvard should not “exhaust its resources” on the poor, and that those “indigent persons” looking for a Harvard education were better “useful and respectable in some other course of life”

Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, Colby, and Middlebury founded in large part due to open education up to those who couldn’t afford Harvard

30% of Brown, Dartmouth, Bowdoin, Amherst, and Williams students deferred education for several years in order to save up, whereas only 6% at Harvard did rising costs deterring the poor from even trying at Harvard?

Religious Understanding

Though the data and trends seems to point to Harvard becoming more of an elitist school by choice, perhaps religion plays larger role in this change

Harvard shifts from Puritan ideology to Unitarianism during Second Great Awakening, though allowed Roman Catholics to teach

The College’s “godlessness” in allowing Catholics during time of revival could have played a significant role in deterring students from the South, small towns, and rural villages, where money was less abundant less-out of-state students allowed room for sons of wealthy Northeast merchants

Godlessness of college seen in statistics on clergyman: 6% of Harvard graduates became ministers v 46% at Amherst, 43% from Middlebury, 30% at Williams, and 24% at Yale and Dartmouth

Conclusion

Harvard began as a Puritan institution and obtained early scholarship funds from wealthy Puritans in favor of the cause

As the 19th century panned out, undergraduate population has fewer poor students and more and more sons of elite businessman

Though shift towards a wealthier student body can be attributed to Harvard’s internal administration, a change in the college’s religious beliefs can also explain the lack of diversity in the socioeconomic make up of the student body, and therefore drop in financial aid given

Sources

http://www.nea.org/assets/img/PubThoughtAndAction/TAA_06_16.pdf

http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/95062http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/phall/05.%

20Keayne.pdfhttp://www.founderspatriots.org/articles/

mass_education.phpBailyn, Fleming, Handlin, Thermstrom.

Glimpses of the Harvard Past, 1986.