<p>Thanks for finding that, franglish. That certainly proves they aren’t lying.</p>
<p>I have looked everywhere on the site, and still can’t find that paragraph. I just wish the information was more accessible to those who need it. Though if intunecos is right and there are many outside, need based scholarships that are easy to find, then it’s not a big deal.</p>
<p>But I still do not understand why the health insurance scholarship isn’t just lumped into the ordinary financial aid package with every other scholarship available and then automatically applied to students’ accounts. Why bury it in the fine print and the massive financial aid FAQ? We are automatically given the Brown Health Insurance, why not an automatic scholarship for the bill? It can’t be that, as intunecos suggests, “many people are part of their parent’s health insurance and they did not see a reason to give you extra money,” because they could easily not give you the scholarship when you waive your Brown Health Insurance(something you already have to do), and you would receive no extra money.</p>
<p>Is there any benefit for the FA office from their current method of distributing health insurance other than failing to give this gift (not entitlement) to those who are unaware or skipped over the fact that they can receive this gift if they ask? Maybe it is merely an oversight by the FA office?</p>
<p>Yes, finding that paragraph was tricky, and I must have stumbled on it yesterday, because it was difficult for me to retrace it, but I did. Here is how I found that on Google:</p>
<ol>
<li> [Brown</a> University](<a href=“http://www.brown.edu%5DBrown”>http://www.brown.edu)</li>
<li> go down to bottom of list and search in “pages” for financial aid + health insurance</li>
<li> a google/brown page will come up</li>
<li> count down 5 entries, (“welcome to brown”) and the explanation is there. It’s a PDF file that was sent to the newly finished freshman class, I suppose, on their entering the school. The paragraph in question is on the right side of page 3.</li>
</ol>
<p>If it were merely an oversight, they should have simply acknowledged it when notified. Coming up with lies, disrespect and more lies to cover it points to another possibility. If they had a clear policy, they would have just told it to me. Why would they say things that aren’t true? This is the definition of a lie, yes, franglish?</p>
<p>Negru, I think the problem here is a disconnect in your perception of the financial aid system. They do have guidelines – rigid ones, and once you have reached the extent of what those guidelines can afford you, there’s nothing, repeat nothing, they can do. </p>
<p>You appear to have reached that extent, no matter how good your reasons may be. They may be arbitrary guidelines, but it doesn’t change that the hands of the peons that work in the office are tied. They aren’t mighty Zeus figures toying with each individual aid package. They have a formula and they follow it. </p>
<p>Sorry kid, we all suffer it. My art supplies, for instance, run thousands of dollars a year. Not covered, because of the institutaionalized maximum on books and supplies.</p>
<p>Ok, so if they are simply following strict guidelines, why do they fail to present them to me, and only give reasons which I happen to know for a fact are false?
For 3 emails in a row now…</p>
<p>And I do not mean false in the sense of obscure interpretation. They said intl students cannot receive this money because their contribution is fixed. I happen know intl students who are receiving this money. So how is that a strict guideline? They just said no, it can’t be done, not, you see, those are special students, we took this and that in consideration etc.</p>
<p>And does it not seem weird to anyone else how the fin aid office is spending university funds? If you are so hard pressed for cash, why give the little you have based on a rule which doesn’t make any sense? Little you have which was supposed to be need-based? Why is the need-based not being need-based? Is that a terribly unappropriate question to ask?</p>
<p>An EFC of 0 is for families who make $60,000 or less and have less than $100,000 in assets. Are there other thresholds, say $100,000 or less in income, or $120,000, where you get a huge jump in aid? At what point is income determined to be so great that there is no aid given?</p>
<p>It’s not entirely based on income. Factors such as costs for secondary school education, the percentage of one’s house that one owns, and other assets, are taken into account. So one can’t give a specific threshold.</p>
<p>Wow I forgot how angry surfing their website makes me. Found this old friend of mine
</p>
<p>Confronted with this, they replied: “No, we do not cover books or anything else”.
Right now I actually hope they won’t please me so I can take all of these issues up with a dean. At the very least, I will kindly ask him/them to remove all these blatantly false statements from their website.</p>
<p><<Confronted with this, [the FA office replied]: "No, we do not cover books or anything else<<
But they seem to include some of it in the calculation: on our son’s (non)-award, it lists:
Tuition and Fees $38,848.00
Room and Board $10,280.00
Books and Supplies $1,266.00
Personal $1,636.00
Total: $52,030.00</p>
<p>They certainly seem to, don’t they? Well if they do, like their calculation says there, I have yet to see any of it.
The helpful lady which went on vacation is hopefully coming back tomorrow, maybe I’ll get some answers. Apparently the rest of the office was unable to answer me in her absence. Dragging this whole crap into the 4th week now.</p>
<p>You will probably be able to find a different bill, where, in some miraculous way, the book+personal amount of 2902$ is precisely, up to the last penny, replaced by other things such as student tax, health fee, etc. Wow, what were the odds of such an exact coincidence.</p>
<p>All I know, negru, is that when I take this:
Tuition and Fees $37,718.00
Room and Board $10,022.00
Books and Supplies $1,230.00
Personal $1,590.00
Travel Allowance $200.00
Total: $50,760.00</p>
<p>From last year, and subtract my “Family Contribution”, the amount I got was exactly, to the dollar, the amount of my grant + subsidized Stafford loan + 2450 in work study.</p>
<p>I have different bills. The first one is from the “student” tab in banner, and is for the first semester only. The second one is from the “financial aid” tab, and is for the whole year.</p>
<p>Undergrad Student Activity Fee $85.00
20 Meal Plan $1,960.00
Health Services Fee $315.00
Health Insurance Fee $2,348.00
Regular Room $3,180.00
Undergraduate Tuition $19,024.00</p>
<p>Tuition and Fees $38,848.00
Room and Board $10,280.00
Books and Supplies $1,266.00
Personal $1,636.00
Total: $52,030.00</p>
<p>Despite various things being different, after multiplying by 2 whatever needs to be multiplied, all the total numbers match precisely. So what’s going on? Looks like they’re eating my book supplies with the various fees which I never asked for?</p>
<p>Actually it, looks precisely right. The only thing not included under the estimate of cost by financial aid is health insurance.</p>
<p>The reason for this may be a cultural thing. In the US, almost everyone going to Brown will have had private health insurance through their families and this “cost” is something which is considered a cost of living not a cost of attending college. You’re not allowed to attend Brown without health insurance and we supply a health insurance plan for you if it’s less expensive than your parent’s plan or you don’t have coverage anymore for whatever reason. In the US, this really isn’t viewed as a cost of attending Brown (though the bill comes from them) as much as it is a cost of living because we don’t have government health care.</p>
<p>Most people just get cheaper health care elsewhere and wave the fee.</p>
<p>The 315 and 85 get tacked on as fees to make Tuition and Fees work, the meal plan + room = Room and board exactly. That leaves both books and supplies and personal, which add up to $554 more than health insurance, the remaining cost.</p>
<p>Wow these people are trained professionals into playing dumb and wasting everyone’s time. I obviously got the response I expected: other students’ situations are confidential. Right. It’s not confidential anymore if the students themselves give me their data. Dumb asses. </p>
<p>And so we’re right back where we started. 4 weeks later I have to reiterate my original question. Now I see why talking to them directly is more efficient: if you forget one single thing from the email, their reply will be only about that thing. If you then write about that, they will reply on everything else you left out. Jesus.</p>
<p>Basically it went down like this:
email 1: i think your policy Z may need revision because of A,B and C.
reply 1: nah thanks we’re cool
email 2: but wait, why? also, here’s D and E in my support
reply 2: there’s nothing else to discuss, because of X
email 3: but wait, I know for a fact X is false
reply 3: i’m sorry, we can’t discuss X. also, here is what Z says anyway</p>
<p>Now, should my fourth email be :
a)right, and here is A,B and C, also D and E to challenge that policy.
I wonder where this will lead to?? could I and the fa office have invented time loops???
b)you are ****ing stupid</p>