<p>Obviously it's a different thing if it's from donations</p>
<p>Brown's FA pkg was in line with Duke's but not nearly as good as Yale's. We met with Brown's FA dept, showed them the other FA pkgs, and discussed/documented some special circumstances (high med bills, etc). Brown took another look and improved my son's FA pkg - also upped the total cost of attendance to include the cost of a new laptop which we had planned on buying. We didn't realize that could be included in the total cost so increasing cost meant increased need which resulted in increased aid and therefore, a happy student. Brown also allowed my son to use several outside scholarships to replace loans, although he couldn't replace the student contribution.</p>
<p>"Brown also allowed my son to use several outside scholarships to replace loans,"</p>
<p>I thought that was a no-no.</p>
<p>not at brown. at brown you can replace loans. at other places it replaces grants.</p>
<p>speaking of which i should probably get on that.......</p>