Harvard Debt

I recently received my financial aid offer from HBS, and I feel pretty okay about it. It's obviously not a full scholarship, so I will still be taking on a massive amount of debt, but I think the offer is relatively generous. As I previously mentioned, HBS only offers need-based aid, and the offer was based on my tax info from the past three years.

Anyway, in the course of researching everything I can about paying off this debt, I stumbled upon an interesting blog where an HBS grad attempted (and succeeded) in paying off $90K in loans in less than a year. He increased his income by taking on a part-time job and seriously cut costs. While I highly doubt that I'll be able to pay off my loans as quickly (that guy was pretty extreme), it's refreshing to see that it's possible to not be crushed under student loan debt for the next ten years.

Hopefully, I'll hear from the GSB soon about my financial aid package. I don't feel comfortable making a decision to choose one school or the other without knowing all of the facts.

Comments

  1. That's a very interesting blog. bookmarking this.

    Hope you'll get a good package from GSB!

    - tinkered

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    1. Thanks, Tinkered. It's been really interesting reading his blog and trying to find ways that I can personally pay off my debt faster.

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  2. Michelle - how long did it take you to receive your financial aid decision from HBS? I am planning to submit everything today or tomorrow and hope to hear back in 7-10 days (trying to beat the tax deadline rush as I assume most will submit their financial aid application after 4/15.)

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    Replies
    1. I heard back within a few days, but HBS says that it typically takes about 3-5 weeks. I submitted my FAFSA to HBS before I was accepted, since I needed to submit it to my round 1 schools anyway. Then, I submitted all of my tax docs and applications within 2 days of my acceptance, so I was probably able to beat the crowd.

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  3. Thank you for this great post and thought!

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