<li><p>Are all freshmen who receive finanical aid exempt from work study their first year or just those coming from households making less than 60K?</p></li>
<li><p>My son visited BROWN last month and went on the information session and tour, but he said he doesnt recall ever putting his name on or list or filling out a card there. Now he’s worried that there will be no record of his interest, especially since it’s his first choice. I assume there is some place to indicate on the formal application that such a visit was made?</p></li>
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<li>Well…“work study” is a cool option where you can do like community service, but get paid for it…and I don’t remember how they allocate that for financial aid. It’s a little more complicated and you have to do paperwork, etc.</li>
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<p>But I assume you’re referring to the expected student contribution that one can fulfill a variety of ways(working…scholarship…parent…). I think if you qualify for financial aid at all, you’re exempt from your first year and get part of it covered by a Brown scholarship instead.</p>
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<li>We don’t track interest. There’s no place on the formal application to indicate that he visited, no lists, and no cards to fill out. No worries–your visit was for you, not us, and will have no impact on your admissions. Several universities don’t track. I only applied to three, but I know that Stanford doesn’t, either.</li>
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<p>tHANKS JustBreathe!</p>
<p>All students are expected to contribute to their education, regardless of family contributions. The following is from Q&As on Brown’s financial aid site:
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<p>Until the current academic year, first year students were exempt from the work/study component. However, when Brown’s policy was changed to eliminate loans for first years whose families made less than $60k, that first year exemption was eliminated. That seems very fair to me, as a parent, because all students should be expected to contribute to their education. You can research it further on the Brown financial aid site. Financial Work Study is not really community service, but it is a real job that you have to research and apply for. It shouldn’t be too hard to get a work study job, though. You are entitled to earn the amount they tell you on your FA letter, but you are not obligated to earn it. It is regarded as a way to defray the expenses that everyone incurs, but it is a real job with a real salary that you must earn.</p>
<p>yep, my parents make less than 60k and I have to do work study to pay for part of my room and board.</p>
<p>Work Study was always a real job at Bowdoin and I had one freshman year on. </p>
<p>I see the policy has changed then because I kept reading that freshman were exempt from work study assignments and then had therm sophomore year on. I see that has been altered. Thanks.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean that it wasn’t a “real” job…but you have the option of working with an organization to “create” a job–so you can, for example, get a job helping disadvantaged students with college advising, etc. and the money from work study will fund half of your pay while the organization funds the other half. That’s what I had explained to me as the difference between doing a work study job rather than one of the other jobs available out there.</p>