<p>For Brown students: </p>
<p>What exactly is included in the financial aid package? I know books, room, and board are, but what about living expenses (soap, toothpaste, other non-toiletries vital to life) or food costs or travel?</p>
<p>Does Brown really meet financial need, or just their idea of need? Sometimes schools (like NYU) will have an idea of need entirely different from the actual need.</p>
<p>How do those students without cars get home during the holiday or after the school year? I live in New Jersey, so I would assume I could take a train from Providence to NYC, from NYC to Atlantic City, and then bus to my respective hometown.</p>
<p>Schools tend to meet their own idea of need. Brown’s idea of need tends to be closer to ours than most schools’, but it’s not perfect. My understanding is travel estimates, at least, are covered in financial aid.</p>
<p>Trains, buses, planes, and being driven tend to be the ways people get home at those times (note that students below junior year may not keep cars on campus, so many people are in this situation).</p>
<p>Financial aid: Brown promises to meet 100% of demonstrated need, something I’m pretty sure NYU does not promise. So in that regard, Brown is better. Now, the question is whether your definition of “demonstrated need” matches Brown’s. That totally depends on your financial situation and your parents’ attitude. </p>
<p>There are some situations – if you have a lot of equity in your house but not a high income, if your parents are self-employed/own a business – where your definition may not match with Brown’s. In some cases, parents aren’t willing to change their lifestyle to pay for college – they don’t want to give up their vacations to make tuition payments. Some parents don’t want to take out parent loans, or need to save for retirement. </p>
<p>Bottomline is that you need to have a discussion with your parents about your financial situation and what they are willing to pay. Your parents need to complete an online financial aid calculator to guesstimate what their costs will be and tell you if they are willing to pay those. </p>
<p>Brown makes an estimate of your personal expenses (maybe not toothpaste, but food and travel) and includes that in the financial aid calculation. They will be modest about trips home – don’t expect the estimate to include monthly trips home. Sometimes it is very easy to spend less than the estimate – buy used book on Amazon and you can save hundreds of dollars.</p>
<p>Freshmen aren’t allowed to have cars, so everyone is using public transit (or parental transit or ride sharing) to go home.</p>