<p>Ghostbuster, I could not agree with you more on adopting a needs-only scholarship policy like the Ivies’. Our oldest dau went to Brown and she received very handsome aid. We had three dependent children at the time & a much lower income. Brown says, the fact that you got in, is the scholarship — if you have need, we will meet it. And they do. </p>
<p>Also, schools like Brown have 2 FA policies — they use the feds’ for the aid they administer that comes from fed coffers, such as Pell Grants, and they use their own guidelines for aid that comes from their wallets—so dau #1 received Brown Grants in addition to her Stafford loans.</p>
<p>Brown’s endowment is nothing like Harvard’s or Princeton’s, but it is still higher than many other schools’. </p>
<p>With the child who is now a hs Sr, we will have a much more difficult time. Admissions will be harder for her, anywhere—she is not #2 in her class as her sister was, and she also is facing greatly increased competition in sheer numbers of applications everywhere. I am trying to get her interested in our flagship state u, which due to the increased downward pressure will not be a breeze-in for her as it would have a few years ago (she is not interested). I really do fear that she will not be able to attend the schools she loves that we have been visiting, even if she does get in, because of schools cutting back on FA now that their endowments have been shrunk. </p>
<p>It is just a bad time.</p>