<p>I’m in that category of being too rich to qualify for aid through FAFSA and such (EFC is above $50,000), but affording Brown would be difficult nonetheless.
When I was talking to my interviewer, I didn’t bring up the topic of financial aid myself, but my interviewer told me that there was a kid she had interviewed before who was deciding between UC Berkeley and Brown University and the main problem was the price difference…and so the alumni interviewer talked to Brown on behalf of the student and somehow worked things out for the student.</p>
<p>Is is normal for Brown to do something like this and give more aid than may be given if just calculated by looking at the EFC to make their offers more competitive with prestigious, but cheaper, state schools that the student may have got into? If so, is the aid just loans, or do they actually give grants and the like?</p>
<p>Schools are known to match offers from "competitors" for particularly desirable candidates. The key is that (a) you have to be accepted at a similar institution (b) they must have offered you some money, merit or otherwise (c) you have to be in the top part of the distribution of the admitted class.</p>
<p>Because Berkeley is a state school, Brown does not considerate it to be a competitor. The schools Brown would consider matching aid with would be the Ivies, top LACs (Williams, Amherst), MIT, Stanford. </p>
<p>I've never heard of a story like the one you tell -- for that to be true, the kid must have been absolutely amazing and a catch (like an athletic recruit or an Intel winner). I actually tried to do that for a student last year and got no where. So I wouldn't get your hopes up, at all -- with an EFC of $50,000, expect no aid at all.</p>