<p>Ok, so last year Brown gave me around $2000 in grants, which is terrible considering my FAFSA EFC was ~$5000. I went to them with offers from Cornell, NYU, and Tufts. I was in-state at Cornell CALS so my EFC there were around $10000. Tufts was around $18000 EFC. I got a $25000 merit scholarship to NYU plus other stuff so my EFC there was around $5000. I put all three on the table (literally) and the financial aid officer told me right away that they can't consider NYU and Tufts, so I gave them Cornell's. They matched Cornell's offer so now my parents pay around $5000 per semester and I have over $30000 in grants. I think she said they also consider Stanford and MIT but I'm not sure so don't quote me on that. I have no idea if my package will be the same next year - I'm actually pretty worried about it but I'm 75% sure it will be around the same.</p>
<p>For people who weren't admitted to Ivies, try looking on FastWeb for outside scholarships?</p>
<p>I sent their financial aid office a letter explaining how much I wanted to go to Brown along with a copy of the Williams' financial aid letter. I also called the admissions officer in my area (it was Eric Hunter for me. He had sent me a letter, so I assume everyone got one from their local guy), told him my situation and how much I wanted to go to Brown, and he talked to the financial aid office on my behalf. </p>
<p>So, my advice to anyone trying to get more money would be to contact as many people as possible within the Brown admission/financial aid system and try to get them to put in a good word for you. Send them letters, call them, email them; make it seem like you really want to go there. </p>
<p>I got a personal letter from Kay Kurashige saying how much I'd fit it. I emailed her back to see if she could drop a word into the financial office for me or something. Sure enough, Michael Bartini emails me and says they're reconsidering my position and asked to send in any other financial aid offers from other schools :-p</p>
<p>I really hope they'll do something similar with me hehe.</p>
<p>i hope you all have better luck w/brown financial aid than i did last year...</p>
<p>I was thrilled to get into brown... but the excitement definitely deflated when i saw the disappointing financial aid package. Though none of my financial aid packages were dramatically different (with the exception of one that i got merit money from... where i am now), brown's was the worst. Plus, our FAFSA/EFC were quite misleading, as we had (and still do have) several ongoing situations in my family that did not yet show up on paper but that would hurt us financially. I appealed to brown's financial aid - i wrote a heartfelt letter, my guidance counselor wrote a letter on my behalf - but all they did was give me about another thousand dollars in grants. I really, really wanted to go to brown, and probably would have done it and taken out the loans had my parents not discouraged me from putting myself in such a frightening financial situation. Instead, i chose the school i didn't like but that gave me a lot of money... where i am now... and i'm trying to transfer.</p>
<p>so good luck - do whatever you have to do, be very persistent!! and to those with success stories - congratulations!</p>
<p>If I ever happen to become rich, I am going to donate lots of $$ to Brown just for financial aid grant.
Ah, I am gonna be in huge debt when I graduate, so I really hope Brown is worth my investment! :)</p>
<p>I was personally contacted by Mr. Bartini and was eventually granted money, but my parents are still unsure >_< One year of Brown's tuition is equal to all my undergraduate years at the University of Washington (the other school I'm still considering).</p>
<p>What should I tell my parents to convince them? lol...</p>
<p>It probably took a week and a half from the time I called them to the time they called me with a final decision. Keep in mind that I kept calling different people and bugging them that whole time though; don't just send stuff and wait.</p>
<p>I don't know if someone mentioned this already, but if you've gotten better financial aid from a comparable school (e.g. another Ivy League school), Brown will try (<em>try</em>) to match their offer (no guarantees, the woman at the Admissions Office told us). What does that mean? For me, it meant that my original estimated Parental Contribution was $37,000 (partly because we still hadn't sent in our tax returns). We appealed it using Columbia's offer as part of our argument and Brown reduced the PC to $15,000 (and no loans). Anyway, if you really want to go to the school and money is holding you back, appeal your financial aid award!</p>
<p>Brown matched my finaid package from another Ivy, but only on the condition that my family makes 10,000 less this year....so no Brown/PLME for me</p>