<p>How does need-based financial aid tend to be at Brown? (My family is probably in the 70k-90k income bracket.) Is it as strong as at, say, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale or Columbia? I ask because Brown’s website wasn’t as emphatic as the websites of the schools I mentioned when it came to how strong need-based aid is.</p>
<p>It’s true that those schools you’ve mentioned have a better track record at providing financial aid, but Brown’s isn’t too shabby. Brown recently started something new that says students from families under the 100k income bar will graduate without loans. This means that Brown’ll make sure that you won’t need to take out any loans in order to pay for everything.</p>
<p>Where my family is, I would have received aid from Princeton and Harvard (maybe Yale), but I’m getting nothing from Brown. Brown considers more than income, though. If your house is expensive and you own most of it, that’ll count against you, while if you have a sibling at a private secondary school, that’ll help.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard from other people who have gotten into Brown and elsewhere, here’s the trend I’ve noticed on who gives the most need-based aid (lower #=better aid):</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard, Princeton (Yale? dunno where it falls)</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Other Ivies and top LACs (Sorry, I haven’t heard too much from people who’ve gotten cross-admitted, and I’ve not looked into their aid too much)</li>
<li>Any school that promises to meet 100% “need” (Duke, UChicago, etc.)</li>
<li>Universities that are need-blind in admissions, but don’t meet 100% (NYU, JHU, etc.). these universities typically try to give aid to the people who will make their campus more diverse, from what I’ve heard.</li>
<li>Other Unis</li>
</ol>
<p>There are definitely gonna be exceptions to this list, and state schools don’t really fall into this pattern. I consider state schools to be financial safeties, for the most part.</p>
<p>Sungchul, unless you make under 60K you will still have a bill to pay. They will not automatically give you loans, but if you can’t pay the bill you’ll end up with loans! Just like me…</p>
<p>wolfmanjack, thanks for clearing that up.</p>
<p>Brown has made a strategic decision to concentrate its financial aid on students whose parents’ income is less than $100,000. So, to answer the original question – assuming that your family has modest assets and the income is straightforward (no self-employment, for example), you should get a good package from Brown. Families with incomes over $100,000 will probably get better financial aid packages from Harvard, Princeton and Yale.</p>
<p>And what wolfman said is true. So it’s good to run your numbers through a financial aid calculator (use the institutional method) and see what your EFC is.</p>
<p>Do NOT apply for Financial-Aid, it will lower your chances and plus Brown’s financial aid isn’t so good.</p>
<p>For those who’re applying to Brown early, my only suggestion is “DON’T APPLY TO BROWN”</p>
<p>peace</p>
<p>after 2007 BROWN IS NEED-BLIND SO YOUR NEED FOR FINANCIAL AID WILL NOT AFFECT ADMISSIONS. korean_dreamer is wrong there.</p>
<p>methinks hes trying to scare off competition during ED xD</p>
<p>Brown is not need-blind for internationals.</p>
<p>the original poster is from texas…</p>
<p>No i am not trying to loosen up the competition. Im only stating a fact</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your replies! Everything you posted was really helpful. xD</p>
<p>I calculated my EFC on the College Board’s website (using the institutional method), and it was a bit higher than I expected. I guess that’s what I’m confused about: Do schools in chsowlflax17’s #4 spot typically use the EFC I calculated when they calculate demonstrated need (by subtracting it from the cost of education)? And do schools in #1-3 calculate a lower EFC? What does that number mean for Brown?</p>
<p>The EFC calculators can only give you a ball park. Some schools will count assets others won’t, some schools will use lower or higher percentages for certain kinds of assets.</p>
<p>At Brown, in my experience, the EFC generally is very close to the one spit out by FAFSA, unless either parent owns their own business or you have an unusual amount of property assets.</p>
<p>Brown’s aid is very good and only surpassed by a few schools and only then if you fall into a specific bracket. Being under 100k but above 60k, your aid is unlikely to differ significantly at any of the top aid schools, including Brown.</p>
<p>For me, the EFC was quite a bit off the FAFSA. I thought because my sister was in CC that it would be like she was going to another university, because that’s how the FAFSA treated it. However, Brown was only considering the tuition costs of her CC, and did a very fair readjustment when I brought forward all the other costs (living, room and board, personal, driving, etc.). I know you will have to submit the CSS Profile, which counts certain assets, and asks you to say how much your siblings’ schooling costs. The minimum amount you’ll have to pay I think is the FAFSA (Brown says they can’t give you more than the FAFSA, even if your CSS Profile EFC is less than the federal EFC), but if your family is pretty typical in assets, and you don’t have a weird, uneven schooling situation like me, then your Profile EFC should be pretty close to your FAFSA EFC.</p>
<p>However, guys, even at Brown, the EFC, FAFSA, CSS and all other calculators may not seem to have much to do with the reality of your bill. You may very well be asked to pay more than the amount you are estimating, due to the various methodologies and percentages that schools use to calculate your need. So, by all means estimate, but then be prepared to realize that there will likely be differences.</p>