<p>So by some miracle I managed to get into Brown today and after the initial “OMG I’m in” I went straight to see if any Financial Aid information was available. I was expecting it would take a couple of days to arrive by mail first, but by some luck (not really) there was some information. The top was just the costs in general so I quickly thought “huh, since their showing something the rest might actually be here.” I was right.</p>
<p>I scrolled down and saw that per year they were only expecting to give me a whopping 14k scholarship. My EFC from FAFSA was only barely breaking 20k but somehow they expect me to wrangle up nearly 40k. I understand a bit of self help, but this just seems a bit extreme. Even NYU who has a reputation for the worst FA in history is offering way more than that. To some of my relief, the banner on the top of the page says that this is an “estimate,” but I’m a bit worried my “real” FA, if there’s any change at all, will be about the same. Is there a chance they just messed up their estimates, or are they secretly trying to make me reject them?</p>
<p>They’re not secretly trying to make you reject them.</p>
<p>Is the rest in loans? They’re heavy with the loans idea.</p>
<p>I doubt that the last speculation is true. If you are accepted, they want you.</p>
<p>Other factors must be included in the FA estimate, remember. The CSS form may have revealed investments or other income sources that could have implied to Brown that your family could afford more. The FAFSA only offers one point of view–which is why I’m worried that, despite my low EFC, other colleges won’t be meeting its limits.</p>
<p>If you’re concerned, though, why not check the final offer once it arrives, and if it’s still unsatisfactory, give them a call. I’ve heard and read that many colleges are flexible when faced with students unhappy with their financial aid. If you ask them to help you see what’s lacking, or compare other offers or your family situation, they may be willing to meet you with more aid. I’d wait a few days at least until they get some sleep, though, after all this application decision-making!</p>
<p>Good luck with affording Brown!</p>
<p>Your numbers don’t seem to add up. If the cost of attendance is around $50,000, and your parents can afford $20,000, that leaves $30,000. Brown is giving you a grant of $14,000, and probably a loan of $5,500. That’s a gap of $10,500 a year, not $40,000. </p>
<p>Plus, since Brown is a “profile” school, that means you cannot rely on the FAFSA EFC number. I’m not an expert on the differences, but Brown takes other assets into account when determining your aid.</p>
<p>That said, there is still a gap of more than $10,000 a year, which could be very hard to close. You should certainly call them and ask them to explain your package, and understand where they think the money is coming from. You certainly shouldn’t take out loans for that amount. </p>
<p>I would certainly show them the NYU offer, and ask them to match it. Brown won’t match merit money from NYU, but could very likely match NYU’s financial aid package. If any other schools gave you a better financial aid package (not merit aid), definitely show Brown those. </p>
<p>Good luck. And congratulations on your acceptance! I hope you can work things out.</p>
<p>Hmm, I checked mine and it was actually pretty fair. Similar to Duke’s, except no loans in this one, so I don’t know what to tell you.</p>
<p>Mine has always reflected (within 500 dollars) the difference between my EFC and the cost of Brown, when you add loans + grant money.</p>
<p>maybe your financial aid is faulted, why dont you call the financial aid office at brown</p>
<p>Yeah, the financial aid is pretty bad. And fireandrain is right about Brown looking at other assets.<br>
I am getting almost no financial aid (0 scholarships, and a thousand some dollar loan), and when we called the financial aid office to find out if this was changeable, they said that they were taking account all the money my parents had in the stock market, as well as this small townhouse that my father had bought 20 years ago and I grew up in, on which he is still paying a mortgage since he hasn’t been able to sell it in the 3 years it has been on the market. They said they considered the value of the second house and all the money we have in the stock market as possible funds that we could use to pay for Brown, even though neither can be readily turned into disposable cash, especially in this economy (although they didn’t put it in such layman’s terms, in which their rationale seems a little ridiculous).<br>
So while Brown’s financial aid leaves a lot lacking, both for myself and others in my year and previous years who have gotten similarly poor financial aid offers, I would say it’s rather unlikely that you will get them to give you a better award. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to give it a shot, though.</p>
<p>It’s not really a gap of 10,500. Brown expects a student contribution from summer earnings, student contribution from a loan and usually student contribution through work study. For those with low income, I believe Brown waives the student loan. The rest can be accounted for by an increase in EFC based on parental assets (home equity, 2nd home, etc). The COA includes a student health insurance plan (about $2500). You can waive that charge if you have insurance through your family.</p>
<p>If you win any outside scholarships, contact Brown and ask them to apply the outside scholarship to the student contributions. In the past, you could only use replace part of the student contribution but I believe now you can replace all of it. If you have more local scholarship $ than that, ask Brown to increase your COA by the cost of a laptop and use the scholarship $ to cover the laptop cost (you need to submit receipts to Brown).</p>
<p>mochabear, you will find that most schools will take into account a second home and stock fund when determining need. This is not unique to Brown. Actually, doesn’t FAFSA also ask for this info?</p>
<p>DS is thrilled and amazed that he got in, but we were shocked by the financial aid, too. We understood that if you earn under $60,000/year, most expenses would be covered at Brown. Our EFC was $1795, we do not own our home or any other property (never have), have no stocks/bonds, almost no savings, and plenty of debt on older son in college. All we have is a very small business on which we owe as much as it’s worth. And yet Brown decided our family contribution should be over $16,000/year. We can’t figure out what they are thinking…</p>
<p>All the other schools he got into offered amazing aid, including Oberlin, Macalester, Amherst, etc. Even NYU, which as noted by the OP, is famous for its terrible FA, offered more than Brown. I guess we will just get in touch with the FA office when the dust settles, as suggested, and hope they will reconsider, since Brown is his top choice. It would be very sad since he got in if we couldn’t afford to send him…</p>
<p>Are you guys not including Stafford and Perkins loans as part of your package? Work study as well?</p>
<p>Those three things added up hit around that 10k mark people seem to think they’ve been shorted and it may just be the way we’re presenting FA information, not the package in reality.</p>
<p>For our son, the loans and work study (totaling $5,500) were in addition to the over $16,000 EFC (instead of $1795 EFC according to FAFSA). That adds up to way too much for us to handle, especially, since other schools like Amherst that also offer no merit aid considered our EFC to be much closer to the FAFSA number, and did not use loans to make up the difference. I’m hoping there’s some mistake here, as DS really wants to go to Brown…</p>
<p>i just checked mine online, and it says i get no financial aid!!!</p>
<p>After carefully reviewing your financial aid application, in accordance with federal and institutional needs analysis procedures, we regret to inform you that you are not eligible for need-based financial aid for Aid Year 2009-2010. Your family’s calculated contribution meets or exceeds the full cost of education for the academic year.</p>
<p>You may visit our website for information on financing options.</p>
<p>Please notify our office if you are interested in borrowing an Unsubsidized Stafford Loan.</p>
<p>now i’m really worried because the economy is down, my father lost a bunch of stocks when his company took a big hit, and my twin is going to college too! i just don’t want to be pressured into going to uva or something because i think brown is so much better.</p>
<p>i hear columbia finaid is very generous, but i was waitlisted.</p>
<p>:/</p>
<p>diggingforfire-- if there was a significant change in finances since filling out the FAFSA you should write to Brown about it.</p>
<p>You also may find out, as I did, that while there is no aid the first year, you’re expecting to receive considerable aid in subsequent years.</p>
<p>I guess that’s a point I should have made. If there is money in a 529 or some other college investment entirely in your child’s name, 100% of that money will be expected to go to Brown this year. When that money is gone, your aid will reflect that.</p>
<p>My parents had considerable savings in my name so I received barely any aid the first two years. My third and fourth year I’ve received a considerable package. Brown as able to inform me of this at ADOCH-- they already had all four years estimated so long as there weren’t major changes in my family’s finances.</p>
<p>thanks for the swift reply, modestmelody. i’m still kind of freaking out, but i guess i’ll wait until the letter and talk with my parents and older sister.</p>
<p>Brown didn’t even meet my EFC, their FA is crap! Good thing I’m going to harvard anyway!</p>
<p>Enjoy your low levels of undergraduate satisfaction up North.</p>
<p>It’s more than just the letter-- don’t wait for anything. Call Financial Aid if you think there is a mistake and talk to them. Be sure to ask about the way they predict your package changing over time. They sat down with me on ADOCH my year and mapped out their expected cost increases and demonstrated what would happen as my sister entered college (EFC cut in half) and as my college savings dwindled down.</p>
<p>Brown made it quite affordable for me without me having to beg or anything-- just realize that hte first year award at Brown is reflective of what they think you can contribute that year. It’s not necessarily 1/4 of what they expect to give you over the course of four years.</p>
<p>In my case, the amount I was eligible for freshman year was about 5% my total package after 4 years.</p>
<p>Modestmelody, thanks for your comment about not waiting to call Financial Aid. I did this morning, and after nearly an hour on hold (with kind interruptions from the person who answered, giving us encouragement that a financial aid counselor would soon be available), I finally got to talk to someone. It turned out that there had been a computer glitch that doubled our AGI, so no wonder they had such a high EFC for us! She recalculated our son’s package, and it dropped back down into the realm of reality for us! She said they knew about the computer glitch, and had thought they had caught and corrected all the aid packages that had been affected by it, but apparently my son’s had slipped through. So if anyone else has similar doubts about their FA package, they also might be a victim of the glitch – it’s certainly worth a phone call!</p>
<p>One other thing the FA counselor mentioned that we didn’t know about: apparently Brown’s EFC can be higher than the FAFSA EFC because Brown considers:
- home equity (which we don’t have), and
- if you have a small business operated out of your home, they add back into your AGI any amount that you deduct from your taxes for “business use of a portion of your home”.
That apparently explains why our EFC is higher at Brown than at many of the schools our son was accepted to, but it’s a fairly small difference, so it will be workable for us. The bottom line is, if he decides that Brown is where he wants to go (and he’s certainly leaning toward that), we can afford to send him after all! We are so happy!</p>
<p>I’m glad things were worked out and I’m sorry things were messy in the beginning-- but these things do happen. I’m always sad when people don’t stick up for themselves and miss out on opportunities because of that.</p>
<p>It seems there are plenty of people calling up FA these days and trying to get things straightened out. I’m sure this is their least favorite part of the year. But honestly, my experience has been that they’re always extremely helpful and understanding and really want to work as hard as our families have to in order to ensure that Brown isn’t close off to anyone (domestically) because they can’t afford it.</p>
<p>I felt the exact same way as the OP.</p>
<p>I checked Brown first, and was ecstatic to get in. However, Brown gave me less than $5000 dollars in aid, and my mother and I could both silently sense how low our hearts sank to realize that I had worked so hard to get into a school like Brown, but would never be able to attend because we could not pay 45k+/year for college.</p>
<p>The last school I checked was Princeton, and Princeton was extremely generous with financial aid, and my mother cried to realize that I could go to college without going into debt.</p>
<p>Although I got into both Brown and Princeton, I don’t know if I am going to visit Brown because… Even if I liked Brown better, could I get them to reconsider my financial aid, and change their mind as much as $30,000? I don’t know…</p>
<p>Please advise.</p>
<p>I’m on the same boat as a lot of you guys, who seem to be disappointed by the financial aid.</p>