@redpoodles did you have to create a financial aid account to view your award? i tried logging in with my sage ID but it said ‘your login failed. we could not validate you Student ID’.
@himal S had the same issue until the entire 24 hours passed after he created his SAGE account and then magically it showed up when he clicked the financial aid status button inside of SAGE
@xc&track-run Sorry they did not tour the athletic facilities. They are actually across South Street which is a Waltham city street where cars speed by roughly 40 mph, maybe more (there is a bridge to cross over).
There’s a track on the map, however! https://www.brandeis.edu/gradstudent/images/Campus%20Map%202015.pdf
If you look at this map, the campus proper is somewhat higher in elevation than the athletic complex side-- and the Upper Campus is higher in elevation than Lower Campus. It’s a bit hilly but not cumbersome in any way. Gentle slopes for the most part.
The area with the track is in a lower elevation.
For the science majors, the science complex is new and very updated.
Yes, it takes some time for SAGE to update. After that all you do is click on the financial aid link.
Also, the T on the map in the lower left is the commuter rail (train) into Boston or if you take the other direction, I think it goes to Worcester. Wellesley is one or two stops down as well. There is also a shuttle bus that goes in and back to Harvard Square several times a day from somewhere on the campus. It’s free.
Does anyone know about the “Friends and Alumni” Scholarship. It seems like this might be a hybrid of scholarship and grant. Will the amount of this award likely change year to year, especially if financial need changes? Between the Justice Brandeis Scholarship and this Friends and Alumni Scholarship, Brandeis is suddenly looking fairly affordable.
@chel17 it’s been 24 hours but I’m still having the same problem. Did you click on ‘view financial aid information’ and log in or was there another link?
got my financial aid package but my father has to pay almost 200% of what he can pay. has anyone tried negotiating for a better aid package? are they a generous university? i was so eager to attend Brandeis but it seems unlikely now 
Extremely disappointing financial aid package. Actually the package is so poor it almost feels like they don’t want me there. My father is an alumni and he said that Brandeis got killed in the Bernie Madoff scandal and subsequently they just don’t offer reasonable aid. We can’t see how it is possible for them to attract a very diverse student body at this point. Better to have rejected me than to accept for admission and then make a F/A proposal they know will not suffice based on our FAFSA and CSS.
@himal I had to click on view financial aid and then log in again using the same new credentials for the SAGE site
Just waiting for the paper/mail fin. aid. (rather than trying the SAGE route), but about that 200% mention abofe, I recall there was s.one on a Brown forum or thread recently who said “expect fin. aid. to show … twice as much as the EFC” from your fafsa. So, @himal above, is this 200% about twice your parents’ EFC? If so, I guess this might not be uncommon (for many privates).
Just for the record (since I mentioned a different college above), I’m not going there! … - am going where I can make it onto D3 athletic team (like Brandeis!) so only mentioned above for reference re. what ppl sometimes get for fin. aid. Yeah, there’s some better fin. aid if considering a rather-or-very non-competitive (academically) school (from what I’ve gathered.) But more competitive schools will gen’lly have more competitive fin. aid (I think).
@howToDecide2017 the amount my father has to pay is 200% of what he has agreed to pay. If i am to compare the amount my father is expected to pay with my FAFSA EFC, is it 5 times the amount. Clearly, they haven’t met my need at all. It is too costly for me to attend.
It is so frustrating for the kids to get in with zero aid. Why admit them in the first place?
I def. hear you, @himal , I was also expecting better aid from this college. Now that I’ve received final cost, mine is also more than 2 times parents’ EFC. I guess its different with the ivy colleges (they are the ones for which I hear there is a pledge to meet full need of admits – but where “full need” can mean 2 x the EFC). Well, although I did get a merit aid offer, cost for the other colleges I applied to is signif. less than for this one. I don’t think the college is “mean” or anything, maybe just that they can’t afford a lot of aid, such as after financial losses in the '08 recession…
hey everyone! I just committed and am trying to find other people who were awarded the Leonard Bernstein Fellowship. if you are one of those people, we should talk! if you decide to commit to Brandeis we will be spending a lot of time together playing music!
To counter some of the negative stories about aid, I got waaay more than expected - the first year or two will actually be less than in-state with scholarships, and while the last two will go up (due to my sibling graduating) it’s managable.
Of course, this isn’t to invalidate those who weren’t as lucky, but I almost didn’t apply to Brandeis because of all the finaid horror stories on CC and general “common knowledge” about the Madoff scam, etc. Sometimes they’re generous, sometimes not, I guess.
Question: When did you all hear about merit scholarships (for those who got)? Did you hear when you got your FinAid or was is separate?
For us, the Justice Brandeis Scholarship was announced in the online acceptance letter. Friends and Alumni Scholarship (seems to be a cross between scholarship and grant aid) came with the financial aid letter a few days later.
@ShakingLeaf You may have found this elsewhere, but it looks like the fall QBReC class has 18 students in it.
re: “Does anyone know approximately how many students receive the QBReC fellowship each year?”
My DD is on the waitlist for QBReC, so I was scouting. Hopefully a couple of kids accepted for QBReC also were accepted to Ivies and give up their spot… 
I don’t know what the experiences of other people have been with Brandeis. My daughter was accepted, and received a merit award - via letter and email. After that, both she and we (parents) have received numerous emails and letters touting the greatness of Brandeis, and how it would be great for her & she for them. Frankly, I’m getting a bit tired of this, because she has not received the one thing that she (and we) want to see - a financial aid award. Trust me, without that, there is not a whit of a chance that we would even consider Brandeis. So, their PR letters and emails are useless until we can make an informed decision. After waiting - endlessly - I/We are more than a little annoyed. Has anyone else had similar experiences. I would LOVE to know. This is highly irregular, and unlike anything I’ve ever seen! Anyone?