@MTVT2015 If you did the aid calculator at Brandeis and the price was lower than the actual offer they gave you, it seems to show that using the first calculation there must have been some need based aid that they were giving.
Brandeis seems to still give true merit aid to some students. The merit aid I am referring to is for student whose FAFSA is above the cost of attendance. Many of those families do not even bother filling out the FAFSA at all…and yet they receive merit aid anyway.