<p>objobs:</p>
<p>Your whole argument regarding Brown centers on their commitment to socioeconomic diversity which is without a doubt better than Duke’s. But I would submit that endowment is a significant factor when schools implement FA. Brown (and Ivy League schools in general) tend to be anomalies in terms of FA. Looking at a list of schools ranked by endowment, there are many non-ivy schools who have greater endowments but worse FA programs. In this case, I would argue that Duke’s stance is actually more conventional Brown and that the trend is endowment size is generally a good predictor of FA (outside of the Ivies that is).</p>
<p>Edit: slow to see replies again</p>
<p>^ I would say that columbia’s FA is only slightly better than Duke’s and in terms of commitment far from Brown’s level despite an endowment of more than $7Billion. </p>
<p>From their FA website:</p>
<ul>
<li>The median income of families receiving Columbia Grant is $83,487, but many families who earn as much as $200,000 a year can qualify for financial aid.</li>
<li>Parents earning $60,000 or less a year contribute $0 towards their children’s Columbia education.</li>
<li>Parents earning between $60,000 and $100,000 have substantially lowered contribution requirements.</li>
<li>Parents earning over $100,000 still can qualify for significant financial aid from Columbia.</li>
</ul>
<p>The only significant thing I’d say that is better than Duke is that Columbia doesn’t give out loans. In that respect that extra couple of billion really helps. </p>
<p>Penn’s FA however, is very good, definitely better than Duke’s. </p>
<p>As for graduate students. I have to say that I don’t believe that they factor into FA all that much. A large part of many graduate students’ stipends actually come from their PIs many of whom pay for their graduate students from their own funding sources.</p>