<p>My d is fortunate enough to receive a full tuition merit scholarship and the NM 2K from another top school. She is considering Brown and the other offer. We received no F/A, some loans from Brown. I don’t think it’s worthwhile to appeal or send the other offer and ask if they can do anything for us. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Brown will not match merit awards from other schools. If a student has a better need package from a competitor, it will review its financial aid award.</p>
<p>In your case, as much as I’d like to encourage you to ask, I’m afraid it would not be worthwhile.</p>
<p>Unless you have money in 529s or other kinds of savings accounts for college in your Ds name. Realize those will all be considered 100% contributions toward college and as soon as the coffers are empty, numbers can change dramatically. While Brown will not match a merit scholarship and won’t give aid to someone who’s EFC is 60k, your EFC may be changing drastically over the next four years based on the structure of college savings for your D, so I would call to understand what the FA picture would look like over 4 years and whether they predict that you’ll never receive any kind of aid or whether they see significant aid in the future.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I think it’s our assets (house, cars, savings) that made us ineligible for much need based aid. If we lived like our neighbors, ski in the winter, island hopping during Spring Break and Europe every summer, eating out 4 times a week instead of savings then may be we would have got some need based aid!</p>
<p>Well, I can say that my aid changed significantly once we spent up a good chunk of those savings after 2 years of paying for Brown. My first year award was 5% of my total award since I’ve been at Brown.</p>
<p>Those 529 college savings plans where we could put money away in my name as a tax write-off each year became funds that are considered 100% contributions. So they go first, then the aid kicked in. Home equity and cars won’t effect aid that much so long as we’re not talking a car collection or secondary homes.</p>
<p>I’d definitely urge you to appeal. Without knowing what the other school is, there’s a chance they’ll say, well, it’s a less selective place and so you “get what you pay for,” but I had success renegotiating Brown’s FA offer last year. Especially this year, given the economic situation, I’d imagine they’d be somewhat understanding. And it can’t hurt to ask, right?</p>
<p>We don’t have a 529 plan but do have savings that were stock options that we got years ago before we had kids and that’s it, no secondary homes or anything else. The merit is from WashU and it’s for 4 years full tuition and a stipend on top along with $2K for NM.</p>
<p>I sent an e-mail to Brown’s FA office because I was on hold on the phone for a frustrating 25 minutes. I detailed them my situation, and they replied saying that they printed out my e-mail and gave it to a FinAid Counselor. I should hear back in 7-10 business days.</p>
<p>I hope that turns out well!</p>
<p>Princeton gave me about 36k more than Brown did. I didn’t mention that though… I felt like I didn’t want Brown to feel like: “Oh he’s just going to go to Princeton anyways, so screw him.”</p>
<p>raudong, you need to tell Brown about Princeton’s package. How else can they try to match it?</p>
<p>For the record – the OP can ask Brown to look again at their financial need, but Brown does not – and will not – match a merit award. It awards financial aid based on need. So in this particular case, I don’t see a positive outcome.</p>
<p>Thank you fireandrain for your reply. I did not think that Brown (or any other institution for that matter) would match a merit award.</p>
<p>Rauduong PRINCETON gave you 36,000 more??? That’s so bizarre. I would think the offers would be alot closer.</p>
<p>Yes, Princeton gave me 36,000 more. Isn’t that weird?</p>
<p>I think it is a difference of how they view my parents, who are divorced… but 36,000 is still shocking. I faxed my statement from Princeton to Brown so that they can re-consider my package.</p>
<p>Deff tell Brown about Princeton.
I was told that they would match a package any other school gave me.</p>