No Help for Harvard
Where did we go wrong? My husband and I have worked hard all our adult lives to provide for our family. Our son never ran away from home, stole a car or was arrested for burglary. Instead he has been doing undergraduate cancer research, has been a volunteer technician in a free clinic and will graduate with honors from UC Berkeley in May.
He was accepted at Harvard Medical School but probably will not be able to attend because we can’t afford the more than $2,000 a month it will cost to send him.
The myth that the government provides aid to good students is just that--a myth. We have tried for two years to get financial aid, and the best that is offered are loans that still require us to provide over $2,000 non-deductible dollars a month for his education.
If he had, like a 16 year-old Vista boy, spent time at the youth authority, county camps and two private homes in other counties, he could now go to Maheo, a private camp for delinquent boys, and be responsible for the camp company’s receiving $2,095 per month from the state and federal governments for his care--just the cost of his unavailable Harvard medical education!
Delinquent kids need government help, I agree. But where are the priorities of the government that will deny similar economic aid to a Phi Beta Kappa pre-med from a middle-income family?
PAULINE FORMAN
San Diego
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