Brown University financial aid - Need help

@blossom went to Brown

sorry @thumper1
@blossom went to Brown (post #13)

Based on your posts I would not liquidate a huge chunk of my assets AND go into debt to go to Brown. Wanting to go to an Ivy and hearing that Brown is nice is weak motivation IMHO.

I can’t help you without knowing more about Why Brown, what you plan to study or are interested in, what kind of motivation you demonstrated in HS. Etc.

Also- how many siblings do you have, what kind of college savings do they have, how old are your parents and how far from retirement are they, what is the backup plan once you liquidate your business, is there adequate life insurance for the younger kids… etc.

I’d like to be helpful but right now your posts scream “go to Georgia Tech and don’t look back”. Why is Brown the “dream school”? A lot of kids who love Brown also love Emory, Tulane, Muhlenberg, Wash U.

Georgia Tech is a terrific school. There are tons of kids from my neck of the woods who would love to go there…and especially at instate costs. I live close to the Ivies.

Guess the grass is always greener.

Have to say…these posts are a little confusing because some are from the parent and some from the student. Is it the student who always wanted to attend an Ivy…or is this what the parent always wanted?

The OP has been informed that sharing accounts is not allowed. For convenience and practicality, I have reworded a couple of posts to put everything back into the student’s voice.

Why Brown? I am interested in applied math and economics. Open curriculum is interesting. I want to study the subjects I like.

Parent in mid forties. They have job (AGI 82k). Only one child.

Business was not primary. They did not get any money from business since they started it two years ago. In fact they supported this partnership business from primary job since they could not close it due to contract.

Well, it’s up to your parents. You have a top choice with GT which is a fraction of the cost. If your parents are willing to either work more or somehow pay for Brown, then go there. It’s really up to your parents. It doesn’t matter what we say if they won’t pay.

Your parents will have to pay in excess of $40,000 a year for you to attend Brown. Their AGI is only $82,000. You are asking them to pay probably more than half of their take home pay for you to attend college.

OTOH! You can attend GA. tech for $12,000 a year.

Thank you all for your valuable inputs.
Special thanks to @thumper1 for being so helpful.

Georgia Tech for only $12k/year? That’s like, the deal of the century IMO.

If you are going into STEM, GT.

As for Brown, did they factor in home equity?

Did you check what their mechanism is for appealing?

Is your Emory award a need based one? If it is pure need and not merit, Brown even though it is not a true peer’s of Emory, may consider the amount of need aid you got from Emory (or not) and recheck their calculations.

@SeekingPam Emory award is merit based. They wouldn’t consider. I would like to major in applied Math and Economics.

GT is a great school. You can always go to Brown for graduate school.

I hope you contacted the Brown financial office for more help.

I went to Brown. I was pretty high need and they always met 100% of my demonstrated need. It was always all grants but I did have a work study and summer earnings requirement. My financial aid did not decrease over the years either. While they expected me to make a bit more each summer, tuition increases outpaced that so my FA award actually increased from year to year. The fact is that I went to Brown for far less than my local state university. Definitely contact the financial aid office.

@widgetmidget thanks for the info.