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April 7, 2008
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From the inbox: Open letter to Drew Faust
Dear Ms. Drew Faust, President of Harvard:
A few weeks ago, I received the wonderful news that I have been accepted to study at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (KSG), but my initial euphoria was soon stamped out as a second KSG email arrived announcing that I would only be offered loans as financial "aid." KSG suggests that I take out more than $130,000 in loans to pay for my two-year Master's program. $130,000? I want to attend KSG to get the best possible preparation to enter the public sector. How am I supposed to work in the public sector strapped with $130,000+ of education debt? Being accepted to KSG has turned out to be a pyrrhic achievement indeed. So, I write this letter to bring attention to my dilemma in the hopes that future KSG acceptees do not have to face the choices currently before me.
At first, I thought KSG must have made a mistake in calculating my aid, considering my limited financial resources (I have spent the last two years as a volunteer in a developing country) and considering Harvard's much publicized push to increase financial aid, even to upper-middle-class undergrads. But no - KSG considers my financial need "met," by offering loans only. The KSG Financial Aid website says, "Financial assistance is a partnership." I have kept my end of the bargain - I live frugally, I do not have much consumer debt, and I applied (in vain) to a number of external funding sources. I do not feel like much of a partner in this relationship, however, as KSG is not offering me a single penny of assistance.
From what I understand, up to three-fourths of KSG students are caught in this quandary. I assume that most KSG acceptees want to attend KSG for the same reasons I do - because we feel a passionate commitment to serving in the public and non-profit sectors, because we want the best possible preparation to enter those fields, and because we want to make the world a better place instead of racking up as much individual wealth as possible. We are the ones seeking to live out JFK's iconic call: "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." I find it rather hypocritical for the KSG dean to say, "At the heart of our school lies an abiding commitment to advancing the public interest by training leaders," and then to force students into a financial situation where public service is not a financially viable option for us after we graduate because we have exorbitant loans to repay. $130,000 in debt, even at a relatively favorable 8% interest rate, means paying back almost $200,000 over the course of ten years, or almost $350,000 over thirty years. This is not just "significant borrowing," which the admissions website warns applicants to expect. For many of us, this amount is patently unreasonable.
KSG is asking its students (assuming that most applicants are not independently wealthy) to choose between our career goals, the education that would enable us to fulfill these goals, and starting a family. How could anyone manage all three with more than $130,000 of debt to repay? In spite of KSG's stated commitment to public service, the lack of financial aid available to applicants means that KSG is, in practice, forcing three-quarters of its applicants to take private sector jobs after graduation, which is in express violation of applicants' career goals and of the school's stated mission. KSG is failing to live up to its own principles.
I am sure that it is too late for me and my fellow acceptees this year, and we will simply have to do some serious soul-searching about whether we want to put off starting a family or violate our principles and career goals to be able to attend KSG. I hope that future generations of KSG applicants are not forced to make these terrible choices.
I therefore implore you, KSG, and Harvard University to increase financial aid to KSG students - through fundraising, through a capital campaign, through bake-sales, or however - so that future students are indeed able to enter public and non-profit service after their education at KSG instead of having to sell themselves as private sector consultants in order to be able to pay back their loans. Otherwise, KSG is guilty of making this country and this world worse, by pushing those who are most able and motivated to serve in the public and non-profit sectors into the private sector. Crass financial calculations are not sufficient justifications for this.
As for me, I have another week or so to decide whether I am prepared to violate my principles and abandon my career goals in order to, rather ironically, attend the best school to help me attain my career goals. KSG is without a doubt where I feel I should attend (or felt, prior to receiving my financial "aid" package), but now I must choose between going to school, being able to enter public service, and starting a family. I cannot see these choices as anything except unjust, unfair, and considering KSG's mission, hypocritical and imprudent.
Respectfully Yours,
A Disillusioned Harvard KSG Acceptee
CC:
David Ellwood, Dean of the Kennedy School of Government
John Haigh, Executive Dean of the Kennedy School of Government
The Harvard News Office
Kennedy School of Government Admissions and Financial Aid
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Comments:
A more fundamental question would be: is there really anything a person learns at KSG that would make them either a better government employee, or a better elected official? Or is this simply one more example of credentialism, with the $130,000 being the toll that must be paid to the troll before he will open the gate?
Seems like a real easy choice to me.
I agree that Harvard's vast endowment, and the way it uses it, is problematic.
However, in this case, if the net result is that this whiny person, who is of the "working for the government is noble, working to provide goods or services that others will willingly pay money for is grubby" mentality, does NOT go into government service, then I think Harvard has done us all a favor.
David -- In most of the real world, you don't need a KSG degree to work in public service. There is no "troll". If people are willing to shell out this kind of dough to go to KSG, then more power to KSG. I don't feel sorry for these self-pitying "victims". As I said in my own post, it is an easy choice. Anyone who can't make it, I don't especially want in a responsible public position.
And if there really is a "troll" for some types of public service positions, I would question the intrinsic value of those positions.
Ms. O'Connor,
I too was just accepted to KSG's MPP program, but do not find myself in your position since the university was able to offer me a very generous scholarship as a PPIA fellow.
Not all new KSG admits are in your same financial situation. While I am sorry that attending KSG may be a financial burden for you, this is not the case for all applicants. Harvard University should continue to be applauded for its commitment to offering unparalleled financial aid for its undergraduates, and I am pleased to be attending the institution in the fall.
Stacey,
Just to clarify: I am not the author of the letter to Drew Faust, and have no plans to attend KSG. My post reprints a letter that was sent to me anonymously via email, with the clear hope on the part of the writer that I would post it here.
--Erin
Even if we were to accept the premise that KSG has an obligation to ensure that its students have the ability to work in the public sector after graduation, this girl's attitude is all wrong. The correct way to implement a scholarship for those students is in loan repayment (done frequently in the legal profession): those students who go into low-paying jobs get assistance in paying back the loans, which ensures that you don't give financial aid to students who end up making a mint.
Maybe I've read too much Ayn Rand, but I fail to see the problem in paying for something worthwhile. Should the professors be obligated to teach her for less money? The electric company to not be reimbursed for the money spent to heat the buildings in the winter? Or does this woman feel entitled to a part of the endowment - as if she has a moral claim to the checkbooks of Harvard alumni?
Stacey, you would be well advised to adjust your attitude. I attended Harvard College as an undergrad, and last year applied to two Harvard graduate programs. I was admitted to both, but received a full fellowship plus stipend to only one of them, which I'm now completing. I am in a public-service oriented field, and the vast majority of my classmates are not on fellowships and are making large tuition payments to attend Harvard. I certainly do not wave it in my colleagues' faces that I have a fellowship and they don't, because to be honest my classmates are all extremely bright and just as hard-working as I am. I feel that I lucked out in getting a scholarship that the vast majority of people didn't get, and a lot of my getting the fellowship was just that, luck in that the admissions committee happened to like what I had to say a tiny bit better than what someone else said that day. I think the letter writer is correct in that Harvard has a long way to go in facilitating public service careers for its graduates.
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