This is the second article in a four part series.
Part 1: For Harvard, Luring Students Is All in the Brand
Part 3: Byerly's Eye On the Yard
Part 4: Stairway to Harvard


Taking the microphone at a forum on socioeconomic diversity last April, a Harvard undergraduate opened up about the culture shock he had experienced after arriving in Cambridge as a freshman. The student, who hailed from a working-class background, said he found himself alienated by the wine-and-cheese atmosphere on campus. He then gestured to the back of the room.

Heads turned. Glass bottles of Pellegrino mineral water and Martinelli’s sparkling cider dotted the refreshments table, standing alongside a generous spread of cheeses, crackers, and baked bruschetta. It was a repast fit for a royal—and an ironic culinary choice for an event highlighting Harvard’s efforts to attract the underprivileged.

The forum took place a little over a year after University President Lawrence H. Summers introduced the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative (HFAI), which sharply cut the parental contribution for families with less than $60,000 in annual income, and the gastronomic gaffe demonstrated the difficulties facing the College as it works to promote the highly publicized program.

“We chose, with the low-income initiative, to send the strongest possible message to families across the nation that Harvard is—really and truly—an option for exceptionally talented students whatever their financial means,” Summers told nearly 1,600 graduating seniors gathered in Tercentenary Theater in June 2004.

But of those listening to Summers’ words, less than 20 percent came from families in the bottom half of the national income distribution. The “problem of equal opportunity” that Summers spoke of was right in front of him. How the College has subsequently marketed HFAI epitomizes its struggle to maintain Harvard’s dual identity. Byerly Hall, home base for Harvard’s undergraduate admissions operation, must walk a fine line between accessibility and exclusivity in its efforts to recruit middle- and low-income applicants for the initiative.

“Many promising candidates don’t apply based on stereotypes,” says Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67. Byerly’s outreach program seeks to dispel these darker aspects of the Harvard myth: that the University is a leisure-class training ground where only the wealthiest are welcome. The new recruiting techniques, such as targeting low-income applicants by zip code and paying personal visits to students in economically depressed regions, aim to make Harvard’s resources appear more accessible to the working class.

Still, an institution older than its own country cannot escape its past, no matter how hard it tries. Harvard wouldn’t be Harvard without fireplaces in dorm rooms, oak-paneled libraries, formal dances, and a whiff of social superiority. Fitzsimmons readily acknowledges that gaining acceptance to Harvard, “to put it starkly, puts you in a position of power.” The University’s elitism is part of its allure, and its image-makers have an interest in maintaining that myth. The face of Harvard wears several masks, depending on which audience is watching.


HARVARD has been reaching out to less affluent applicants since the early 1930s, when University President James B. Conant ’14 sought to recruit promising students from schools that normally flew below the Northeast prep radar. Committees of alumni were organized throughout the country to help find candidates for new National Scholarships funded by the College.

In promoting the program, Conant evoked Thomas Jefferson’s idea of a “natural aristocracy of talents and virtue” and the need to provide equal opportunity to intellectually capable citizens, regardless of social background. Conant tied the expansion of Harvard’s student body to “the welfare of the nation,” as he wrote in his memoir, “My Several Lives.”

Summers echoed that sentiment in a speech at the annual meeting of the American Council on Education in February 2004.

“Going back to the beginning of the Republic, and Jefferson’s view that virtue and talent were sown as liberally among the poor as the rich, the contribution of education—and especially higher education—to equality of opportunity has been a central concern,” Summers said.

In a section on “recruiting economically disadvantaged students,” a 2002 Harvard handbook for alumni interviewers underscores this idea of national import: “The Committee seeks to attract these students because of how much a Harvard education might change an individual’s life—and the life of our society—for the better.”


FITZSIMMONS himself arrived in Cambridge in 1963 amid Harvard’s burgeoning meritocracy. A working-class Massachusetts native, he was warned by the head of his parochial high school that Harvard was a “godless and communist place.”

“Anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, a bunch of rich snobs, a bunch of Communists, a bunch of atheists,” Fitzsimmons recalls being told of the Kremlin on the Charles.

A goalie on the Harvard hockey team, he worked for dorm crew and class reunions to earn extra money as an undergraduate. At the April forum, he told students, “I was angry when I arrived here.”

“As a student from a blue-collar background, I was rather appalled by the wealth of the place,” Fitzsimmons said. “To say I had a chip on my shoulder would be a wild understatement.”

In showcasing Harvard’s accessibility, HFAI is part of an effort to wean the University’s image off the elitism that gnawed at Fitzsimmons in the mid-sixties. Eight undergraduates work as program coordinators, and Byerly hires HFAI students to recruit for the College in their hometowns, according to Leona A. Oakes ’07, senior coordinator of the program. Some HFAI admits were flown to Cambridge last spring on the College’s dime, and last April’s prefrosh weekend featured two open forums on student life aimed at the budget-conscious.

This fall also saw the publication of the first “Shoestring Strategies for Life at Harvard,” a 30-page, pocket-sized “guide for students on a budget” that features tips on saving money on everything from dorm furniture to summer internships. The booklet was conceived and written by students, according to Oakes, who was also chief editor.

“Some among your roommates might be interested in buying brand name towel racks, spending a small fortune on a Persian rug, or other furniture budget busters. Don’t fret. Here are a couple of strategies that will help,” offers the guide. The language recognizes a common problem faced by low-income students at Harvard: the shock of entering a community where affluence is the norm.

Efforts like the “Shoestring Strategies” are one method of easing this tough transition—and, in marketing terms, a way to soften Harvard’s image and signal a shift in its brand identity. The budget guide isn’t just for current students; prospective applicants can find a copy in PDF format on the College’s admissions website. Alongside the online guide is a new feature: streaming videos featuring an ethnically and geographically diverse group of undergraduates discussing their Harvard experiences. The videos are divided into sections such as “the Climate and East-Coasters” and “It’s not the stuck-up, crazy place…” Stanford, Princeton, and Yale don’t have anything similar on their admissions sites.

Fielding applicants from low-income backgrounds is only the first marketing hurdle Harvard needs to overcome. After mailing acceptance letters, Byerly must convince students from outside Harvard’s upper-middle-class mainstream that there’s a place for them in Cambridge. That’s no easy task for a college widely considered a chilly bastion of the Northeast elite.

Last April, amid the green-and-orange color scheme of Loker Commons, the admissions office held a reception for students admitted to Harvard under the HFAI program. Byerly representatives were on hand to distribute white T-shirts with “HFAI” written across the back in large red letters. A table of crackers and cookies welcomed the couple dozen students milling about, comparing notes on their prefrosh experiences. None had yet accepted Harvard’s offer of admission, but almost all spoke enthusiastically about the opportunity afforded them through the College’s expanded aid offerings.

“I had gotten the application and threw it away,” said Jenny Pyles of Norman, Okla., a yellow flower perched in her brown hair. She was later contacted by HFAI’s 2004-2005 undergraduate director, Peter M. Brown ’05, himself an Oklahoma native. “He told me how affordable it is and about the travel opportunities,” Pyles said.

She added, “I know there are great opportunities here. I know I can pay for it. I’m here now. I just need to see if it’s right for me.”

Still, Pyles wasn’t sure whether Cambridge was the right place for her.

“I want to be a housewife,” she said. “So I didn’t see any reason to come here.”

Despite the hospitality, Pyles remained unconvinced. She began her freshman year at the University of Oklahoma this fall.


HFAI’S first full admissions season was a successful one. Qualifying students comprise nearly 18 percent of the College Class of 2009, up three percentage points from the previous year. Almost 80 percent of students accepted under HFAI are studying at Harvard this fall.

The initiative has also been absorbed into Harvard’s marketing operation. A postcard with details about the program is included with every copy of the College viewbook mailed out to prospective students, according to admissions officer Christine C. Mortell ’00.

Fitzsimmons told students in April that he was “excited about the new type of Harvard student.” But the fact is that Harvard’s student body remains wealthy. Even among the half of Harvard students on financial aid, according to Fitzsimmons, the average household income is in the high $80,000 range.

More troubling for admissions officers is the persistence of Harvard’s elitist image, which remains a powerful force in the culture.

“I was in a state recently where not very many students come to Harvard,” Fitzsimmons says. “A number of people said, ‘Why should we even think about going up to that ridiculous cold weather with a bunch of elitist northern Yankees?’ And so forth and so on. ‘Why shouldn’t I just go to state university which is terrific and everybody has a wonderful time?’”

So how will Byerly know that HFAI is working?

“We don’t have any number goals, like quotas of any sort,” says Sarah E. Beasley ’99, a senior admissions officer and co-director of HFAI. “We don’t have any definite number that we’re shooting toward.” HFAI was budgeted at $2 million a year, about 2 percent of the College’s total financial aid budget.

But while Byerly makes a concerted effort to attract disadvantaged students, Fitzsimmons remains sympathetic to the hurdles faced by applicants who hail from wealth. “We’re beating the life out of students with privilege,” he told students at the April forum, describing the regimen of test prep, Advanced Placement courses, and parental pressure in college-crazed communities where university acceptance can be more status symbol than golden opportunity.

“As much as I am sympathetic to non-college, blue collar kids, like me…we wouldn’t all use Harvard’s resources as well as other people would,” Fitzsimmons told students at a similar event held two weeks later, where soda and cookies had replaced the cider and cheese. He confessed his doubts that “you’ll ever see a perfect representation of American social classes at a place like Harvard.”

But he said Harvard must move closer to that goal.

Citing a statistic that whites will be a minority population in the U.S. by 2035, Fitzsimmons wondered, “Guess how relevant Harvard will be in another generation or two?”

—Staff writer Michael M. Grynbaum can be reached at grynbaum@fas.harvard.edu.