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Paragraph I

A visit to Harvard’s campus, with its severe stone buildings and hushed lecture halls, can be an intimidating introduction to the oldest university in the U.S. But for many prospective applicants(i), it’s not the gargoyles(ii) or the geniuses that scare them away from applying to Harvard; it’s the bill. (iii)

(i) People who have applied, but have not been accepted yet.
(ii) Gargoyles are stone sculptures of mythological creatures placed on the façade or top of building to ward off evil. Harvard has many old buildings with gargoyles on them. Here is a picture of a gargoyle (not at Harvard, but in France. Picture found from google images)(My link fails to appear. Go to google image and look up what a gargoyle looks like.)  For those of you who have watched the movie “Batman Begins” would have seen an imagery of Batman standing on top of a building looking like a gargoyle. The imagery is that he is standing guard over the city, warding off evil.
(iii) The bill=the cost.

Questions by Yeti
(1) Why did the author say a visit to Harvard’s Campus could be intimidating?

Questions by Yeti
(1) Why did the author say a visit to Harvard’s Campus could be intimidating?

(2) What keeps most people away from choosing Harvard as their university of choice?

(For the time being, I will put the answers in my blog http://yeti.diandian.net.I will entertain suggestions for a better way of doing this.)

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 Next fall, Harvard will charge $30,275 year to impart its brand of veritas (iii)and gravitas(iv) to students. Room and board are(v) extra. And many of Harvard’s Ivy brethren charge similar amounts.

(iii) Veritas  Harvard’s motto. Latin for Truth. [img] http://www.cog.jhu.edu/grad-students/savova/pics/harvard_logo-veritas.jpg[/img]
(iv)Gravitas: A Latin word that means “depth and substance.”  E.g. George is a man of gravitas. For more read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitas  (Please note: 金山词霸 definition is only one aspect of the word.)
(v) In English, singular and plural word agreement is not always black and white. Whether one uses “are” or “is” in this case depends on whether one looks at “room and board” as two items or one. I have been told that even “a lot of” can be either singular or plural depending on whether one looks at what is described as individuals or as one unit. As for “our/their lives/live”, 90% of the time it is plural. The only time when it is singular is when a life common to all is indicated.)

Question (3) What does “Harvard’s Ivy brethren” mean?

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  The Top schools insist they are open to all. At Harvard, families that earn less than $40,000 a year don’t have to contribute a penny to their kids’ education; Yale and Stranford do the same for families making $45,000 or less. But for middle- and upper-middle-class families, the sticker shock(vi) at an elite university can be overwhelming. And the recent interest-rate hike of almost 2% on government-backed loans only increase the distress.

(vi) A “sticker” is a price tag on a piece of merchandise. A “sticker shock” is when you get a shock upon seeing how expensive the piece is.

Questions
(4) By implication, what families do Harvard considered as low-income?
(5)  Why would the recent interest-rate hike increase distress?

Part II of II  

Fortunately for those families, a growing number of public colleges and less elite private schools are waiting for them with a bushel of new scholarships that used to be based on need but now are based on merit.(i) The schools are simply following the times: these days even public colleges are obsessed with improving their rankings, which can be done in part by attracting high-scoring students with offers of an all-expenses paid education. Although need-based grants still make up the overwhelming majority of all scholarships, the giving has been tilting slowly but surely towards the best and the brightest. A decade ago, 90% of state-college grants were need-based. Today it’s barely 75%. 
(i) Need-based grant=financial aid given out according to economic need (i.e. how poor the student is). Merit-base=financial aid, such as scholarships, given out base on how well the students achieve.

Question 6: What changes have taken place in the awarding of scholarships?
Question 7: What are the public colleges doing to upgrade their national ranking?

    What’s wrong with giving a bright kid a free ride? Well, consider what happens to the students who used to get those grants. Maybe they weren’t the best students, but they still belonged in college. Now they may not be able to afford it, says Sandy Baum, an analyst with the College Broad. “We need to have a national discussion of our priorities,” she says. ”Why do our state schools throw money at the highest-scoring students? What happens to the other kids?”
     There is a possibility, however, that the shifting financial-aid priorities could result in a kind of virtuous mixing of the college gene pool. High-achieving kids are going to lesser-known schools and public institutions in greater numbers, drawn by the generous offers. They will inevitably bring higher academic standards with them. And lower-income communities are finding that their gifted kids can gain entry to the most expensive schools, perhaps helping pry open the austere gates of Harvard Yard a little wider in the process.