Harvard Law School Adapts Financial Aid Policy to the Changing Market
If you have ever been on financial aid, you know that many law schools require you to work over the summer and make financial contributions towards your debts based on your summer employment. Harvard Law School has such a requirement. Financial aid awards have been traditionally determined based on a ten-week, minimum summer work requirement.
That’s a fine policy during normal economic times, but these are anything but normal economic times. Many students — even Ivy-encrusted Harvard Law students — have seen firms reduce the length of their summer programs to less than ten weeks.
Earlier this month, it looked like HLS students in this situation would not only be losing income because their firms scaled back their summer programs, but they would also owe Harvard more money. A few students received this email from the HLS financial aid office earlier this month:
In processing your application for aid, we note that you have indicated you will be working less than 10 weeks this summer. The official policy of the law school is to impute a contribution in all circumstances (except medical) when students work less than 10 weeks in the summer. Work in a paid law-related position is not required; the only requirement is that you work in some capacity. You can volunteer or work in a non law-related job if circumstances require you do to so. The best way to ensure that you will not be assessed an imputed contribution for part of the summer is to secure a volunteer position or a second paid job in order to meet the 10 week work requirement.We understand that for students whose employers have reduced their summer programs for economic reasons, it might be difficult to find additional employment or volunteer opportunities. However, at this point we are not able to promise that our policy will be more flexible. If you are not able to meet the 10-week requirement after making an effort to explore other options, you can submit an appeal at the end of the summer to have the imputed portion of your student contribution reduced or eliminated. We will ask you to explain the circumstances and the steps you took to try to meet the 10-week work requirement. In making appeals decisions, the Financial Aid Committee will consider how widespread summer employment reductions were, the timing of your first notification that your summer employment was reduced, and your demonstration of a sustained effort to meet the 10 week work requirement.
Is this policy fair? HLS officials change course, after the jump.
But many students didn’t learn that their summers would be cut short of ten weeks until relatively late in the game. It was not easy to find another job while you were also studying for finals — let alone the difficulty of finding a two week long “job.”
A tipster explains the perceived unfairness of this HLS policy:
I guess it would be “bad” for students to spend the summer slacking off poolside when they could be working and contributing toward their educations like other, more diligent students. But when the time off is the result of forces beyond my control, and I accepted an offer that complied with the policy, and I am informed in mid-June that I need to find another job for 2 weeks, I think the school has gone too far. I’ve lost $6,000 due to summer-program shrinking; now the financial aid office is penalizing me more. Basically, my shortened summer program is costing me ten grand.
Above the Law asked HLS officials about the school’s policy given the market constraints many of their students are facing.
Today, we’ve learned that Harvard Law School has changed course. Who says Harvard Law School is resistant to change? This isn’t your grandfather’s Harvard Law School.
According to a spokesperson for the HLS financial aid office, a change in policy has been made so that students will not be penalized just because firms have cut the length of their summer programs:
We decided earlier this week to reduce the summer work requirement to 8 weeks. … [W]e always send out an email about the summer employment policy to students who have told us they won’t be working 10 weeks. The idea is to make sure they understand the policy while they still have a chance to do something about it.This year we added a paragraph describing an appeal process for those whose summer jobs were cut to 8 weeks. We didn’t initially promise to reduce our work requirement to 8 weeks because we weren’t sure our grant budget could absorb the cost without impacting other areas of our need-based aid program. So we wanted to reserve the option, if necessary, of determining through appeals which students were really placed in the most difficult bind and offering the most flexibility to them. However, now that we’ve reviewed enough aid applications to understand the scope of summer job reductions, we have decided we can move to a reduced 8 week requirement this summer. We’ll be notifying the affected students of that later this week.
Thank God for budget absorption.
How are other schools with similar requirements handling the situation? Money is tight all over, but I’m sure 2Ls are already feeling squeezed enough.
Earlier: Cravath Announcement Causes Immediate Reaction At Harvard Law School
Sorry About Your Little Crimson Diploma, Bro’
(46) 
Comments
First/second to say: poor Harvard babies,cry me a river
Less than 10 weeks should read fewer than 10 weeks.
I went to HLS and all I have to show for it is this blog.
Go fuck yourself you harvard douchebags, who cares if you worthless assholes make a couple grand less in the summer. There are plenty of other law students who work harder than you for less than you.
No one gives a shit about this policy. the only place it should be posted is on harvard's website.
Peace out homies
Harvard, "working less than 10 weeks?" IT'S FEWER!!!
Holy f**k, no wonder Elie's grammar is shite.
Wow, some poor HLS kids only made $24,000 this summer instead of the expected $30,000 . . .
:'(
Harvard Ball Gags
"If you have ever been on financial aid, you know that many law schools require you to work over the summer and make financial contributions towards your debts based on your summer employment."
How long has this been the case, showing my age when I applied to LS none of the financial aid packages (HLS included although I didn't end up there) calculated this potential contribution. Is this a recent phenomenon?
Law students, the ones that voted for President Obama, need not worry about their fiscal plight. Your chosen one will erase your educational debt while providing you with free healthcare. It won't matter that industrious pioneers will have to flee the country to escape the pricetag of Obama's generous plans or that the opportunity to become a successful person in this county has been nipped. Socialism can't be that bad. It is working for China, Cuba and Venezuela. I will send you my regards from the French Antilles once I retire and escape the doomed course of this nation.
Try to imagine yourself in the Cretaceous Period.
You'd get your first look at the six-foot turkey as you move into a clearing. But raptor, he knew you were there a long time ago. He moves like a bird; lightly, bobbing his head, And you keep still, because you think maybe his visual acuity's based on movement, like a T-rex, and he'll lose you if you don't move. But no. Not VELOCIRAPTOR. You stare at him, and he just stares back. That's when the attack comes - - not from the front, no, from the side, from the other two raptors you didn't even know were there.Velociraptor's a pack hunter, you see, he uses coordinated attack patterns, and he's out in force today. And he slashes at you with this - a six-inch retractable claw, like a razor, on the middle toe. They don't bother to bite the jugular, like a lion, they just slash here, here - or maybe across the belly, spilling your intestines. Point is, you're alive when they start to eat you.
So, you know, try to show a little respect.
PE,
Please fly Air France on the way there. It would be a shame if the plane crashed...
(too soon?)
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutgrammar/lessfewer
Wow, 2 and 5 should be castrated immediately.
2 and 5 just got owned by 12.
13=12
Actually, you dopes, "less" is correct in this situation because the reference is to the amount of time, which is not an individually counted item, even if you express it in weeks. If you are going to correct people, at least be right.
@11 -- Not too soon, but only because your comment is directed against PE, Mr. suicide schtick.
BITCH SPREAD THE BUTTCHEEKS SO I CAN SMELLS THE JUICY INSIDES!
Is this policy NOT totally counterintuitive to begin with? You will only be required to make a contribution if you DON'T work enough to be able to make a contribution?
9, you should replace "China" with "North Korea."
And the Antilles are not French.
"If you have ever been on financial aid, you know that many law schools require you to work over the summer and make financial contributions towards your debts based on your summer employment."
It doesn't follow that, if you've been on financial aid at your school, you necessarily know anything about the requirements imposed by "many" schools.
What is with the new Jurassic Park schtick?
Is this policy for Harvard grants or something? I guess that I don't have a problem requiring grant or other free money recipients to work during the summer, although it seems pretty bogus. My law school didn't have any requirement like this - I don't even remember telling them where I was working or for how long.
10. What are you and Dr. Sattler going to do now?
Who wants to see my Prince Albert?
2 & 5 = Cooley Law Students
PE = unamerican, unpatriotic, traitor
#4 = Yale grad.
Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler -- you've heard of Chaos Theory?
No? Non-linear equations? Strange attractions?
Dr. Sattler, I refuse to believe that you are not familiar with the concept of attraction!
NO ONE CARES!!! HARVARD = TTT
This whole "problem" just shows how sheltered most law students are, even the "best" law students. The policy clearly states that the 10-week work period can include non-law related work, either paid or volunteer. Any person smart enough to get admitted to HLS "should" be able to procure a 2 week volunteer opportunity, even on short notice. Homeless shelters, soup kitchens, hospitals, museums, public gardens, senior citizen centers (and assisted living homes), etc., are just a few types of institutions that are constantly looking for people to volunteer their help, and most understand that many of the volunteers are not committed to the long haul- they don't care, they just want whatever help you can give.
WHO CARES!! WHy is it every email from some retarded 2L at Harvard about something completely mundane and retarded gets a post on ATL?
Seriously WTF! NEXT HEADLINE, PARKING PASS ISSUE FOR ONE HARVARD LAW STUDENT. . . IS IT THE END OF THE WORLD?
anyone else have an overwhelming desire to take PE in the shitter?
Did Elie go to Harvard Law School?
Is Elie an extreme affirmative action activist blogger?
Is Elie a racist?
Did Elie complete his eighth grade grammar course?
Find the answers to many of these questions and more, implicit in all AbovetheLaw.com posts.
Can we try to not mention Hahvad for a WHOLE WEEK?
This has turned into AboveTheCrimson.
All the Harvard grads at
CravaTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTh
couldn't keep the ship from sinking
awww a few snobs at Harvard don't have jobs
why don't they ask their daddy for some $$$
dumb post
-hls 09
We don't actually think that PE is really a retired partner from a top law firm who trolls ATL all day with 20-somethings who make comments like #17's, do we?
Maybe the law students can set up sponsorship sites just as the undergrads have started to do. Because, you know, it's a real travesty if these people have to incur debt like the little people do.
HARVARD = TTT
@ 30 - Thank you, beat me to it. Perhaps more stupid than people lamenting this policy is Harvard's decision to change it.
Should it really be a surprise that after a 30%+ loss in its endowment Harvard would make cuts in its financial aid (like other parts of its budget)? Why is this even an issue? Harvard would still get very good students if it were to abolish financial aid entirely, and the new policy is nowhere close to doing this.
Do "many schools" really require this? I don't think my school has this kind of rule...
"Suffolk Law School Adapts Financial Aid Policy to Teach Graduates How to Make Change, for Cash Register Work"
Have the NAACP and the ACLU jumped in crying about this yet?
Pansies