Delete as wrong thread
Ivies do not match any other aid packet. They are very clear they do not match but given a peer school aid package they will relook at your offer. They say this is because the aid is need based. . Since the aid is need based it will stay similar for all four years unless your financial situation changes. Have 2 ivy kids that are/were on fin aid. HYP only matches/uses HYP. Harvard uses different factors than Yale and Princeton so if you get into H then you can use their more lenient aid to get Y and P to adjust/recalculate your aid package.
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Was there merit aid in these other packages? They do not give out merit aid
No - both Amherst and Wesleyan only do need-based aid.
I understand theyâre not Ivies, but Amherst in particular is definitely at the same selectivity level as the mid/lower level Ivies, so itâs annoying me that Brown isnât matching.
Similar acceptance rates doesnât make them peer schools. Iâm guessing thatâs how Brown is looking at it.
Good luck to you!
I know but in terms of academic prestige, theyâre also close. So how are they looking at it? Could be the fact that Amherst and other LACs have higher endowments per student, I guess. Iâve also heard of them matching Amherst, Middlebury, and Wesleyan before, so maybe itâs something about this cycle.
The Ivies not match they only reevaluate. You can see what the difference is like did Amherst not use home equity in their calculations? And yes similar acceptance rates do not always make them peer school.
It really is not this cycle. I have 2 Ivy kids who are on aid. I had one match a peer Ivy. I have spoken with 6 of their fin aid offices to reevaluate aid. This is all they do. They just do not consider non Ivies peer institutions. (this is what they say not me) It is also not the endowment. Brown has double the endowment of Amherst and almost 6x Middlebury. I think the unfortunate thing is there are plenty of kids on the waitlist that will full pay to take the spot. I hope your kid ends up in a great place. Brown and Providence are an amazing place to go to school.
Good luck!
I meant the endowment PER student â Amherstâs is about $2 million while Brownâs is $700,000 since Amherst is so small. Home equity could also be it, but Brown is supposed to have eliminated consideration of that. Though maybe thatâs as fake as their elimination of loans.
Even with these factors, Brown has definitely matched LACs before â I know people irl who have had that happen â but I suppose itâs possible that they only consistently match Ivies.
Itâs fine â we can afford Brown at this point anyway, just trying to get the best package we can. Thanks for your insight!
Why do you say their elimination of loans is fake?
They donât include them in the initial package but encourage them if the initial package doesnât work for you rather than giving you more money
Now i understand. Unfortunately, and as Iâm sure you know, their grants are based on a needs analysis so they wouldnât give the loans as additional grants because thatâs not the need amount that their calculation assessed you for. But you can always appeal their needs analysis if you think they may have missed something. They have forms for this or you can call and set up an appointment with one of their financial aid counselors.
The no-loans policy just started recently, and I donât think a lot of other colleges are no loans â although of course some are.
My son had a loan as part of his freshman year and no loan when they changed their policy his sophomore and junior year. We were appreciative of the policy change.
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My son just sent a LOCI yesterday, uploaded to his portal and updated with anything else going on with him this semster.
Hello,
Was finanical aid package big difference between Brown & Amherst? Ours is about $8K difference between Brown & Amherst. We emailed and called but Brown would not reconsider.
Originally, there was a $10k difference in grant between Brown and Amherst, and a $16k difference in grant between Brown and Wesleyan. After appealing, they added $5k to our package to make the differences $5k and $11k, respectively. Technically, since Brown expects me (the student) to pay a whopping $6k, their package is within $2k of Amherst for âparental contribution.â But since Amherst only expects me to pay $1.8k, thatâs bs.
Iâm sorry that they didnât match your offer at all! Itâs really frustrating, since they definitely have matched in the past. My family and I are going to talk to them in person on ADOCH.
In my experience, Princeton has been the most generous of those three colleges not Harvard, but yes, they will all look at each otherâs packages while being careful to say that they will not match only recalculate. Iâm sure some of it just varies with individual finances. But they all stick to the same script almost word for word âwe do not match awards from other colleges, but please send us documentation of your other offer(s). Becuase if another college is looking at your finances and calculating a significantly different assessment of your childâs need, then weâd want to reevaluate to see if perhaps we were overlooking/missing something that the other college took into account.â
Interesting that people in the same office give different messages. The financial aid officer at Brown told me that they would consider the aid packages from other need-based institutions when recalculating their aid award. He clearly said they would look at packages from any university or college as long as it was not merit aid; he did say similar institutions but he did not specify that it had to be another Ivy League college.
This is not that surprising. Amherst is significantly wealthier than Brown. Nor is it surprising that Princeton is more generous than Harvard, as they also have significantly more money. Brown is much further down this list, with an endowment per student under $600,000.
Thank you⊠We will give one more request with Brown⊠I wanted to make sure we not out of line when asking for more aid.
Have you looked at Brownâs financial aid page where they have their appeals language and forms? They list some special circumstances that they will consider. If you meet any of those, you should let them know.
The nice thing about the student portion is that you can turn in outside scholarships for this part and it does not reduce the parent aid package