Cost and Aid for the Secondary School Program

No, you are not guaranteed a financial aid award if you have received aid from Harvard Summer School in previous terms. Additionally, if you do receive a financial aid award, the amount may be less than in previous years. Students must apply for financial aid every year. Eligibility is based on current financial status and funds available from Harvard Summer School.

Please note: We encourage students to seek other sources of funding in addition to applying for Secondary School Program financial aid. We do not maintain a list of outside funding sources.

Secondary School Program financial aid is independent of Harvard College financial aid and is not associated with the FAFSA.

The financial aid application for our need-based scholarship is located within the program application portal. We do not offer a separate financial aid application, so students must complete it before they submit their program application.

When completing the financial aid application, students will be asked for information from the student and parent 2023 1040 tax return and 2023 W-2 forms in addition to the value of student and parent assets.

To be eligible for financial aid, you must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. permanent resident, or be granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status.

Harvard Summer School does not offer application fee waivers for students. However, if you are a student applying to Harvard Summer School with an organization that is affiliated with Harvard Summer School, you may want to inquire with your organization to see if there is an application fee waiver available. If so, your organization would be billed for payment of the fee.

While we do offer financial aid to eligible students, awards typically cover only a portion of the program cost. Families should expect to contribute to the remaining portion of the program cost as well as other expenses like books, school supplies, and travel to the Harvard campus.

Information on the payment deadline, as well as information on other important dates and deadlines, may be found on the Secondary School Program calendar.

Unfortunately, payment deadlines for the term are firm deadlines that cannot be extended.
Student accounts must be paid in full by the payment deadline for your program, or the student will be at risk of being dropped for non-payment.

Payment plans are not available. Students may make several smaller payments towards their balance over the registration period, but the balance must be paid by the payment deadline.

Because Harvard University is an institution of postsecondary education, we must comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 as Amended (FERPA) in protecting the confidentiality of students’ educational records, regardless of the student’s age. This means that our personnel may communicate only with the student about their courses, registration status, account balance, and other information that is specific to the student and not identified as directory information.

For more information, visit our Rights and Regulations webpage.

Harvard Summer School accepts the payment methods listed below:

• Credit or Debit Card
• Checks (electronic or paper checks are accepted)
• TransferMate (for international payments and domestic bank wires)

Click here for detailed information on each payment option.

You may authorize others (parents, employers, other third parties) to access your financial account information — to view your student account details and submit a payment directly to your account via credit card or electronic check (U.S. bank accounts only).

In compliance with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), your student financial records may not be shared with a third party without your written consent. Adding an authorized user serves as your written consent that a third party may view your account information and make payments on your behalf via the Student Finance Portal.

To authorize a user:

• Sign into the Student Finance Portal in MyDCE by selecting Financial Services at the top of the page.
• Once you have consented to the Billing and Payment Terms and Conditions, you will find the Authorized Users link on the Finance Portal main page.

You may manage your authorized users by adding, deleting and editing authorized users information from the Student Finance Portal main page. You may authorize multiple users.

Please note that authorized user access is granted for the online portal only. Student Financial Services staff are unable to discuss a student’s account details with an authorized user via phone or email.

The program fee covers the cost of offering additional extracurricular activities to students in the Secondary School Program. A variety of in-person and online activities such as college admissions programming, college readiness skills workshops, volunteering opportunities, and health and wellness activities are available to SSP students. Some longer, off-campus trips may include an additional cost between $10–$40.