Top Ivy League schools: Harvard or Yale?

Both universities are located in the New England group of states on the north-east coast of the US, an area which is home to all eight Ivy League schools.

Harvard is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just to the north of Boston. Named after the UK’s Cambridge, and also home to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this university town has a longstanding tradition of scholarship and is very much a student-centered community.

Cambridge is also known for its attractive squares, tree-lined river banks, historic architecture and healthy arts and culture scene. Nearby, Boston has earned a reputation as one of the US’s leading urban centers in everything from architectural innovation to legislative change.

Yale is in New Haven, a city in the south of Connecticut on the shore of the Long Island Sound – an estuary leading to the Atlantic Ocean which separates the states of Connecticut and New York. Described by Yale president Richard C. Levin as “large enough to be interesting, yet small enough to be friendly”, the city has a diverse selection of restaurants, museums, music venues and annual festivals.

It’s no secret that higher education at prestigious US universities doesn’t come cheap – but the good news is that the Ivy League schools also tend to offer relatively high levels of financial support. At Harvard, undergraduate tuition fees for 2023/24 were set at US$52,659. When additional fees, accommodation, travel and personal expenses are considered, the annual cost of attendance is estimated at $76,763.

At Yale the figures are similar; undergraduate fees for 2023/24 were $64,700. When accommodation and other expenses are accounted for, the total is about $83,880. Students will also need to consider the extra cost of securing health insurance.

At graduate level, fees depend on which graduate school the course is offered by. At Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, full tuition fees for 2023/24 are $54,032, and students are advised to budget at least an additional $38,508 per year for living costs. Similarly, at Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, fees for 2023/24 are $48,300.

The costs for degrees such as medicine are, as is typical, a little higher. Harvard’s Medical School (graduate level only) charges tuition fees of $69,200 for 2023/24. And at Harvard Business School, an MBA programme will currently cost $74,910 per year, with a total annual budget of $115,638 recommended.

Those figures may seem unaffordable for most, but most students at Harvard or Yale are eligible for financial aid. At Harvard, 55 percent of undergraduate students receive need-based aid through the university’s financial aid programme. Financial aid officers work to determine your demonstrated need and your family’s expected contribution, with students from families with an annual income below $65,000 expected to pay nothing, and more than 24 percent of students’ families paying nothing.

Yale similarly offers need-based financial aid, pledging to cover 100 percent of undergraduate students’ “demonstrated financial need”. 54 percent of Yale undergraduates receive aid, with an average grant amount of $50,000 in the 2023/24 academic year.

At both universities, large numbers of graduate-level students also receive grants, loans, fellowships, scholarships and also paid employment. Whichever level you’re studying at, and whatever your subject, extensive information on the costs of study and how to apply for financial aid is provided on the universities’ and graduate schools’ websites.

These high levels of financial support are rooted in the fact that both Harvard and Yale have need-blind admission policies. This means students’ finances are not taken into account when making a decision about whether to offer them a place, and the university pledges to contribute as much as is required to enable students to attend once they’ve been accepted. This policy applies to all students, whether they come from within the US or elsewhere.