Students walk on campus at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., Nov. 19, 2025.
Reba Saldanha | Reuters
This year, Harvard University once again secured the top spot of most desirable colleges, after being bested by Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2025, according to a recent survey of college-bound students by The Princeton Review.
Current college applicants named the Ivy League institution as the ultimate “dream” school, even as Harvard’s prolonged battle with the government and resulting federal funding cuts unfold.
Most recently, the Trump administration sued Harvard last month, accusing the university of failing to comply with its investigation into the school’s admissions practices.
The ongoing legal disputes have done little to tarnish Harvard’s reputation, according to Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief.
“The added spotlight on Harvard, particularly over the last year, certainly hasn’t diminished their brand,” he said.
Applications have only continued to skyrocket, driving acceptance rates near rock bottom. Harvard’s acceptance rate was under 4% for the Class of 2029, down from more than 10% two decades ago. Data from the current admissions cycle is not yet available.
College tuition bill sticker shock
However, even over getting in, both students and their families said “sticker shock” was their biggest stressor when it comes to college, The Princeton Review found. The 2026 College Hopes and Worries survey polled more than 9,400 students and parents.
Indeed, the sticker price is daunting: The cost of attendance at some schools now nears six figures a year, after factoring in tuition, fees, room and board, books, transportation and other expenses.
College tuition has increased 914% since 1983, outpacing all other household expenses, according to a separate report released this month by J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
“The most common question I get from families is, when is it going to slow down? History has proved to us that it’s not,” said Tricia Scarlata, head of education savings at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
“There are always going to be people that want to go to the Ivys,” Scarlata said. “Our kids all have dreams, and it’s amazing to think big, but we have to be realistic — the debt people are taking on is tremendous.”
To help cover the rising cost, most students borrow to pay for college, which has led to ballooning student loan balances.
From 2005 to 2025, education debt surged 343%, and 97% of graduates with loans over the last 10 years said the debt caused them to delay major life goals, J.P. Morgan Asset Management also found.
Although many of the nation’s most elite schools offer generous financial aid packages to ensure affordability for qualified students — with some even covering the entire cost for low-income families — they are less likely to give out scholarships in the form of merit aid, The Princeton Review’s Franek said.
For example, at Harvard, there are no merit-based awards, but tuition is free for undergraduates with family incomes of $200,000 or less, according to the school.
“The Ivys and many near-Ivys are so competitive that they needn’t give out merit-based scholarships,” Franek said. “That said, those schools do meet 100% of students’ and families’ demonstrated financial need.”
For a majority of students and their families, financial aid is the most important factor in decisions about choosing where to attend school and how to pay for it, The Princeton Review also found. The amount of aid offered matters, as does the breakdown between grants, scholarships, work-study opportunities and student loans.
“With costs and student debt continuing to rise, it’s more important than ever for families to make informed choices,” Scarlata said.
Especially as artificial intelligence reshapes the workforce and eliminates some entry-level opportunities for new college grads, “families are looking into what degree will give my child the most earning power and what degrees will get them a job when they graduate,” Scarlata said.
Franek said college-bound students and their parents are paying much more attention to the value of public versus private colleges. “There is still a focus on brand and reputation, but they are incredibly practical about fit and return on investment,” he said.
Several factors — including how much financial aid is offered and how much students have to pay out of pocket, as well as the choice of major, future earnings potential and how long it takes to graduate — determine a college’s ROI, according to a 2025 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Students and their families are “thinking much more like consumers and investors than ever before,” Franek said. “College decisions were an emotional decision, now it is a financial strategy.”