Tuition and Financial Aid
This site provides details on tuition and fees, applying for financial aid, types of funding, billing policies, and more. Please review all the information carefully and contact the Office of Financial Aid if you have any questions.
Financial Aid Frequently Asked Questions
Applicant – prospective students
Those seeking funding must complete the Harvard Chan financial aid application process, as academic departments and programs rely heavily on the information you provide the Office of Financial Aid.
We encourage all applicants (domestic, international, and undocumented) in eligible degree programs to complete our grant/scholarship application regardless of their level of financial need. However, if you are a Harvard employee and plan to use the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) for your studies at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, you are ineligible for grant/scholarship.
International and domestic students are eligible for the same types of Harvard Chan grant/scholarship funding.
Applicants in the following programs are not eligible to apply for institutional grants/scholarships.
PhD and Harvard Chan Dual/Joint Degree Applicants, please visit our website for more information.
If you have not received an email with instructions on how to log in to MyFinaid portal and complete your Harvard Chan Grant/Scholarship application by early December, first make sure that your SOPHAS application is complete.
If your SOPHAS application is complete, check for an email from Admissions Office with the subject line: Action Required: Harvard Chan School Applicant Credentials and an email from the Financial Aid Office with subject line: Harvard Chan – Apply Now for Merit & Need-Based Funding. Please contact our office if you have not received this email by December 15.
If your SOPHAS application is complete and you still have not received either email, you can expect to receive both of these emails prior to our application deadline.
The application deadline is on January 8, and there is no flexibility.
This will be your only opportunity to apply for Harvard Chan School grant/scholarship aid, even if you are applying to a multi-year program.
If you are trying to submit the Harvard Chan Grant/Scholarship Application and are getting the following error message: “System Error, contact your IT department for help… We apologize for the inconvenience. Contact the financial aid office if you still have problems using this application. Thank you for visiting our site. Error Message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object” please see below:
The most common reason is that you did not fill out a required (*) question. Even if the answer is “0” you will have to enter that into the form to submit. Please double check that all questions are answered.
If you are still having issues, please send a screenshot of the error you are experiencing to our office at, financialaid@hsph.harvard.edu and we will be sure to resolve it prior to the deadline.
If you receive the following error message when trying to log in: “Your MFA provider has denied your attempt at second-factor authentication. Contact your system administrator for help in restoring your account” and need help claiming your HarvardKey or are entering invalid login ID and/or password, please contact the IT Helpdesk at helpdesk@hsph.harvard.edu or (617) 432-4357(HELP).
The Harvard Chan Grant/Scholarship Application is a short application that will collect some general, income, savings, and assets information from you. You will need to provide information on your 2024 income. It does not allow for the submission of documents or long text responses.
In addition, if you are a domestic student (except MPH-EPI applicants), in order to provide a complete financial aid package at the time of admission, we strongly encourage applicants to complete FAFSA by the January 8th deadline.
If you plan to submit a statement on overcoming disadvantage and adversity, you will be able to upload a 1–2-page essay through MyFinaid. After you submit your application, refresh your webpage, or log out and log back in. The upload feature will be located under your main page or by navigating your menu bar to documents and messages.
Domestic students in eligible programs can complete the 2025-2026 FAFSA to be evaluated for federal aid (unsubsidized loans and/or Federal Work Study).
International students are not eligible for federal aid and do not need to complete the FAFSA
Our office has information on other Harvard Funding Opportunities with separate applications and External Scholarship Resources. The page on external scholarship also includes tips from a former student on how to go about searching. We have compiled the resources we are aware of and encourage applicants to do their own searches.
If you submitted your 2025-2026 FAFSA in the last 3-5 business days, it is likely that our office has not received it yet. In the meantime, you can log in to your Federal Student Aid account to check the status of your submission and verify that you included the correct school code (E00214 – Harvard School of Public Health).
Please be aware that our office is closed for Winter Break from 5pm ET (Eastern Time) on December 20th through 9am ET on January 2nd. No FAFSAs (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) are going to be received during that time. We recommend following the step above to verify that you selected the correct school code.
Notifications can be expected at the time of admission.
Admitted – incoming students
If you’ve received your admissions decision and are having difficulty finding your financial aid letter, we encourage you to watch our instructional video for guidance on the process and/or refer to the following:
After viewing your Admissions decision letter, there should be a “Next” button at the bottom that will take you to your Admitted Student Portal. Once there, you should see a section for Financial Aid with a button that says “View Your Financial Aid Letter”. That button should take you to your financial aid decision. If you are still unable to view your financial aid information, please contact the Office of Financial Aid at financialaid@hsph.harvard.edu.
Yes, the notification you have received reflects your final offer.
No, we do not have an appeal process. Regrettably, due to limited resources, we are unable to provide funding to many qualified candidates and are unable to match offers made by other institutions; funding at our school is extremely limited.
As scholarship funding is limited, we are unable to provide grant assistance to many applicants. Federal loans represent one option for assisting with your educational expenses.
For international students, information on educational loan borrowing options is available separately. If you would like to pursue that option, our office can guide you through the process. We highly recommend exploring external funding opportunities in general, and in your home country to see what options are available.
If you are a domestic student who completed the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), we have only included your eligibility for Direct Unsubsidized Loans and Federal Work Study (if applicable). You can apply for a Federal Direct GradPLUS loan through StudentAid.gov to cover the remaining cost. The application for 2025-2026 academic year will be available in late May 2025.
If you are an international student, if you are interested in borrowing educational loans, you will need to first apply and then notify our office. Please note that private student loans for international students have annual limits that may be significantly lower than the total cost of attendance. If you plan to borrow through multiple lenders, you must notify each lender as it may impact your eligibility to borrow.
Here’s how school-wide scholarships are distributed in a typical year:
| Degree Program | Funding |
| Master of Public Health (MPH) 45 Residential Program and 65 credit program | About 30% of our students receive school grants. Most cover quarter to a half of tuition costs. |
| Master of Public Health (MPH) 45 Generalist (on-line program) | About 50% of our MPH-Generalist students receive school grants. Most cover a quarter of tuition costs. |
| Master of Public Health – Epidemiology (online/on-campus) | 50% of students receive support; Awards range from $5,000-$20,000 |
| Master of Science (SM) 42.5, 60, & 60 credit program | About 40% of our SM students receive school grants. Most cover a quarter to a half of tuition costs. |
| Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) | Students with demonstrated financial need are eligible to receive grants covering 50% of tuition for the first two years of the program. There is no merit aid for this program. |