Trustory13

....Well, Brown did not match Dartmouth for some reason. I gave them my financial aid statement from Dartmouth and they only took off a couple hundred dollars. There is still about a $6,000 difference. I will call them again, but meanwhile, any suggestions? Is it weird that they weren't willing to match one of their biggest competitor's aid?

xmobile

Oddly enough they did the same thing to me except they wouldnt match Dartmouth OR Penn...it was kind of annoying but hey, it's life.

Czar212

If the difference is that big (6K definitly is huge), dartmouth might be the better option. The quality of education will still be amazing, and you're saving yourself 24K over 4 years (grad school anyone?). I think it is really weird, but such is life.

Milkmagn

This is a no brainer... Go to Dartmouth.

billman1020

trustory im in the same position, the difference right now is 12k, and I sent Brown Dartmouth's offer late last week - im hoping to hear back by tomorrow to see if they will at least come close : /

How long did it take them to send you a reply to Dartmouth's offer?
If Brown matches or comes within a few thousand, I'm gonna pull the commitment card trigger lol. I just hope they respond soon...

dcircle

24k isn't a huge gap for an education that has a >160K sticker price and is valued at ~500K (in terms of annual spending per student)... particularly since it can be easily paid back with a low interest loan within a year of earning an average post-brown salary.

that being said, in past years, these offers were matched--my guess is persistance will pay off. it is, however, possible in light of the huge financial aid hikes at HYP that brown is being more conservative towards schools it typically wins matriculants from anyway (dartmouth, penn, etc.)

Sungchul

Georgetown gave me $2000 more than Brown did. Like dcircle said, considering the price tag of the overall price, $8000 more in the end wasn't that bad.

And I did ask them to match. They said they couldn't do anything except maybe turn what I have to pay into loans. :|

tennischamp822

billman1020, what is an "average" post-Brown salary?

coughdrop

Actually the gap is likely to exceed 24k as this is a good indication of each school's financial resources. Dartmouth's endowment per student is over twice that of Brown's, and it spends far more on research, advising, social life, planning and construction, and almost everything else imaginable. Brown lags behind in almost every category, and is probably the most overrated school in the top 20.

dcircle

thanks for the input coughdrop, but it turns out you are bit misinformed

1. everyone who knows what endowment actually is realizes it is only one source of income--only 5% gets drawn every year towards the annual budget. compared to dartmouth, brown has a larger revenue stream from research grants, unrestricted gifts, and other sources. as a result, brown actually has a larger overall annual budget than dartmouth

Dartmouth - About Dartmouth - Facts
05-083 (Budget and Tuition)

2. as a result, brown actually spends more on research, capital projects, etc.

3. as it turns out, both spend the same amount per capita on financial aid. the disparities between financial aid offers isn't a difference in how much the two schools spend, but how they distribute their spending along the family income spectrum

4. while dartmouth concentrates resources on families earning less than $75,000, brown actually has a more generous cap for eliminating tuition requirements ($100,000)--a fact that is largely attributable to the $100 million gift brown received for financial aid a few years ago

mumzy3

Brown matched my D's financial aid offer from Dartmouth; in fact the total family contribution came to a little less than Dartmouth.

matthewyy

Where do you get this statement?
"24k isn't a huge gap for an education that has a >160K sticker price and is valued at ~500K "

500K? Where do you find this info? or is it just a myth?

wolfmanjack

Yes, we here on the Brown forum just make numbers up.

modestmelody

My guess is that number comes from some widely circulated numbers about the different average earnings over a life time of a college graduate versus a high school graduate, therefore valuing any undergraduate degree at 500k over a life time. If you think that's even a useful metric, ymmv, all of that junk.

ClaySoul

your point?

every school has a different system and frankly there are plenty of people clambering for your spot if you don't take it...