Harvard’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) makes it possible for Harvard University staff, faculty, part-time employees and retirees to take Extension School courses.
Before enrolling, you should review the information published by the Benefits Office at Tuition Assistance. Benefits reports your TAP eligibility to Harvard Extension School. If you have questions about TAP eligibility or taxable benefits for certain graduate courses, please contact the Benefits Office at (617) 496-4001 or Benefits@Harvard.edu.
How to Use TAP
Register for courses. After choosing your courses, click on Primary Cart and then choose “TAP Options”, click “Opt-In”, and then “OK”. Once you click “OK”, this will apply both your TAP benefits and the non-refundable TAP Fee of $40 per course to your student account.
If you have not previously registered for Extension or Summer School courses, there can be a delay of up to 48 hours from when you first register for a course until you are able to Opt-In to TAP.
When you create your MyDCE account, your name and date of birth must match exactly the information on record with the Benefits Office.
If you are unsure of your final course selection for the term, you may wait to Opt-In to TAP until your schedule is final. However, you must return to your Primary Cart to Opt-In to TAP by the full payment deadline for the term or you risk being dropped for non-payment.
TAP Fees
TAP Fees are assessed per course and are non-refundable. The only exceptions are if a course is cancelled or if you are closed out of a waitlist by the Registrar’s office. If you drop or withdraw yourself from a course, the fee is non-refundable.
If you are an employee with the Longer Service designation, you will receive a Longer Service TAP Fee Waiver for one $40 TAP Fee per term. Please note, however, that if you sign up for a second course, you would be charged the $40 TAP fee for the second course.
TAP Restrictions at DCE
- Professional & Executive Development programs are not covered by TAP.
- Courses in the January Session count towards your Spring Term TAP limit.
- ALM Thesis course 499 AB is an 8-credit course, which counts as two courses for the purposes of TAP and has an $80 TAP Fee.
- Active Learning Weekends, Labs, and similar courses, which are related to a standard course but are a separate, optional registration, count as a separate course for the purposes of TAP benefit. This means they count towards your TAP limit per term and, when TAP benefit is used for them, bear the same $40 TAP Fee.
