In almost every regard, Brown is one of the most generous universities in the United States when it comes to financial aid. They are in the top 20 universities with the most generous financial aid packages, they are one of only around 100 universities that are need-blind in their admissions process and are one of only 75 universities that meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. It’s clear that Brown makes a concerted effort to help lower income students get to Brown, but I believe they could do more to make expected family contributions more equitable.
Within a financial aid package, the expected family contribution is the dollar amount Brown believes your family can and should contribute to your education. This is calculated based on your family’s income, savings, assets, investments and personal circumstances. Rounding up, about 50% of Brown students are on financial aid, with an average grant of $49,830, meaning the student’s family would still be paying $39,118 out of pocket. The other half of students are paying full tuition which, for the current school year, is $88,948. Using these numbers, we calculate $69,389 as the average amount a student will pay to attend Brown University.
Students often use outside scholarships as a means to supplement this high number and pay for their education. However, after $5,000, any outside scholarship will not lower one’s expected family contribution. This means that the average student would be able to decrease their payment to Brown by only 7.5% using outside scholarships. Regardless of whether a tuition payment is made by the family or an outside source, Brown will get the full amount of money they have billed. This could put middle and lower income families in a situation where they are paying more than is comfortable, but there is virtually no way to lessen the expense.
Unlike FAFSA, Brown also considers the income of noncustodial parents in determining a family’s financial need. This makes sense: if your parents getting a divorce meant you could go to school for free, every high-income family with a primary breadwinner would legally end their marriage and list the non-earning parent as the child’s custodian. And 70% of Brown’s families come from the top 20% — permitting such an obvious loophole would put a serious dent in Brown’s bottom line.
So, as usual, lower income families suffer the most from efforts to prevent bad behavior by the rich. Only 44% of custodial parents receive their full amount of child support, with the average payment being around $450. If the majority of single parents cannot depend on a few hundred dollars a month to clothe and feed their children, how can they expect that same coparent to pay Brown the many thousands of non-court-mandated dollars that the University expects? Pell Grants, which are federal scholarships designed to help low-income families pay for college, are awarded by FAFSA’s metrics of need. However, if Brown disagrees with FAFSA’s assessment, the Pell Grant will only “result in a dollar-for-dollar reduction to University Scholarship and … (will not) impact the student contribution.” The grants should not be a bonus given to elite universities for accepting poor students. To make these grants virtually ineffectual for lower income students is immoral and greedy.
Plus, Brown already has many fantastic programs in place to help lower income students get into and afford the College. It doesn’t seem like that far of a stretch to ask them to put more measures in place that make college more accessible for those in the middle- and low-income classes. For example, Brown could let students use scholarships to pay for $5,000 of their tuition, then split the remainder 50-50 between their expected contribution and direct payment to Brown.
At a school with such wide ranges of economic circumstances, placing the same cap on someone paying $10,000 and $60,000 is unfair. $5,000 is a much more significant chunk of one tuition compared to the other, a textbook example of the difference between equity and equality. Brown can and should update their policies to reflect equitable financial practice. It seems ironic that accepting middle- and low-income students is a PR boost for Brown, but multiple programs that, in principle, are designed to aid these students often end up lining Brown’s pockets, leaving marginalized families to wrestle with student loans and work overtime to afford the college of their dreams.
