President James Conant

1934

Harvard’s first major financial aid initiative

As a former undergraduate scholarship recipient himself, Harvard President James Conant 1914, PhD 1916 created the first major financial aid initiative: the National Scholarship Plan.

The Plan adopted the newly created SAT to help admissions better evaluate, reach, and recruit students from a wide range of high schools, specifically in the West and Midwest.  

The first 10 recipients from the Class of 1938 graduated with honors, half of them summa cum laude.