💰 Part 5: How did we afford Harvard with no debt [SAVE]? 💸 My mom’s Google research skills. That’s the honest answer. This was the early 2000s—no smartphone apps, no algorithm-curated feeds. My mom sat at our desktop computer for HOURS researching scholarships, summer and winter enrichment programs, and financial aid strategies for ambitious students pursuing Ivy League education. She’d dig through scholarship databases, read forums, and print out pages of opportunities. She found merit-based scholarships I didn’t know existed, fully-funded high school programs at elite universities, and financial aid pathways that made Harvard and Cornell accessible. Her research became our competitive advantage. While other families assumed these schools were financially out of reach, my mom was finding the programs that leveled the playing field. Most importantly she helped me find Harvard’s Undergraduate Minority Recruitment program which was key to me meeting Tanya Thompson. She was the fina...