Scholarships

<p>I got into Kenyon, Brandeis, and Berkeley. I toured all the schools, including Brandeis a couple weeks ago. Disappointingly, Brandeis didn't offer any scholarship and when we inquired, found out that they basically have already given out all they're going to give. That's a full $45,000 my family has to pay a year! I ended up choosing Berkeley - much better deal at $25,000 a year.</p>

<p>It's unfortunate that their endowment isn't larger because I would've seriously considered Brandeis as a go-to school if they had offered me some kind of compensation. Oh well.</p>

<p>mbird:
Tell me, what color is the sky in your world?
What makes you think that you qualify for a Brandeis scholarship?</p>

<p>The hard reality is that Brandeis gives out millions of dollars each year in scholarships and they chose to give them to students other than you.</p>

<p>I think that tells more about your qualifications than Brandeis' endowment.</p>

<p>Good luck at Berkeley, it's a fine school.</p>

<p>soze, I have no idea who you are, but for some reason every post of yours I have ever seen has been amazingly rude. </p>

<p>mbird was just making an observation; and yes, Brandeis does have a relatively small endowment.</p>

<p>^^^ It doesn't follow that mbird would have received a scholarship if the endowment were larger than it is (~600 million dollars). Also consider that the total UG population is only 3200 and that Brandeis is a fairly young University when judging this endowment.</p>

<p>FWIW from Brandeis website:
Approximately one of every five members of the freshman class receives scholarship awards ranging from $5,000 to full tuition per year for four years. This year, Brandeis awarded undergraduate students approximately $38 million in scholarship and grant assistance.</p>

<p>just_browsing:</p>

<p>Sorry, but I'm just being frank and injecting a little reality into this discussion.</p>

<p>In this particular case, the poster was flat-out claiming that if Brandeis had a larger endowment s/he would have been given a scholarship without even considering the possibility that they were not qualified.</p>

<p>The point I was making was very valid: Brandeis gives out millions of dollars in scholarships and chose not to give one to this candidate. Again, that says more about this candidate than Brandeis' endowment, which incidentally is actually pretty big for a school with 3,000 undergrads. Consider the other very fine private school that the poster mentioned: Kenyon.</p>

<p>Kenyon's endowment works out to about $95k per student, while Brandeis' works out to about 160k per student. This is despite the fact that Kenyon is 125 years older than Brandeis. Yes there are lots of smaller and richer schools (Amherst, Williams, etc.) but these are all literally centuries older than Brandeis.</p>

<p>Back to your original point:
Many of the kids on this forum post here with the expectation that everybody is going to tell them how brilliant they are, and how they are going to be showered with admittances and scholarships. The sense of "entitlement" that many of the kids here express (personified by the poster above) amazes me.</p>

<p>I'm sorry, but I'm not going to play that game. I'm not being rude, I'm being (refreshingly) honest.</p>

<p>I take no issue with the content of your post. I won't argue that your post is in fact dead on accurate.</p>

<p>My issue was that you "injected reality" where none was neccesary. Telling mbird she doesn't deserve a scholarship doesn't help her or anyone, she's already going to a different school. It just puts her down and leaves a sour taste in people's mouths.</p>

<p>Sorry, but we are going to have to disagree there.</p>

<p>Because despite the university's decision, she in fact does think she deserves a scholarship.</p>

<p>It seems to me she needs to start living in the real world. Perhaps she has been given bad advice, etc.</p>

<p>She is going to a great school, so the point (in her case) is somewhat moot anyway.</p>

<p>As a follow-on to what beantowngal posted, endowment proceeds don't always fund scholarships. They can be used for endowed chairs (professorships) to things as mundane as building maintenance.</p>

<p>Just-browsing - thank you for your support.
I was, in fact, just making the observation that Brandeis is still a young university and as a result of that, its endowment is not going to be as big as some of the other schools. In addition, it won't be giving out quite as many scholarships as some other institutions.</p>

<p>Soze - Don't get me wrong, Brandeis is an excellent school. Don't be mistaken that I think I "deserve" a scholarship; money wasn't the only, or most important factor. It was how I felt about the campus, the programs they offered, the surrounding area, etc that truly influenced my decision. I just liked Berkeley better, though I admittedly didn't make that too clear in my original post. I was not trying to be contentious, just sharing my point; and while you are free to your own opinion (and brought up some excellent points), I honestly don't appreciate your snarky reaction to my post. Hope this clarifies.</p>

<p>PS I'm a guy.</p>

<p>mbird</p>

<p>Trying to correlate the size of a university's endowment to the amount of financial aid it dispenses is a specious exercise, whether done on an absolute, per capita, percentage, or any other basis. As often as not, endowments are established for purposes other than granting scholarships.</p>

<p>brandeis.....is horrible.. in the financial aid department..</p>

<p>have u talked or emailed their fin. aid office? they're NO help what so ever.</p>

<p>they sent my fin. aid award letter 3 days after my deposit was due. I got it on may 3rd...</p>

<p>i totally disagree with many of the comments posted here.</p>

<p>brandeis in fact, is one of the most generous institutions that give financial aid. i don't understand why many of the people try to get on to scholarships at the last minute. if you were needing financial aid, then you should have submitted the financial aid form with your application, not after you had received your acceptance letter. </p>

<p>maybe this is different for u.s. citizens, but as an international I felt that brandeis fulfilled my expectations.</p>