The latest Ivy competitor

COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY

On Mon., Feb. 22, Brown became the fifth Ivy League school to restructure its financial aid policy in the last year.

The Yale Herald: How has the structure of Brown's financial aid changed?

Michael Bartini, Brown's director of financial aid: There are a couple major areas. First, our self-help levels have been reduced for all students. This has been done in a gradual way, so that the neediest students get the largest breaks. The reduction is primarily in the loan area. [The graduation of income levels] is unique to Brown.

The second major point is that we're allowing students to have the full benefit of outside scholarships up to the level of their campus job and loan. For example, if a student's campus job and loan cover $5,000 of their tuition, but they have an outside scholarship worth $5,000, they would not have to have a campus job or a loan. Anything more than $5,000 would still be deducted from the university grant.

YH: Harvard also recently changed its self-help levels. How does Brown stack up?

MB: The interesting thing Harvard is doing is they're not just changing the aid for incoming students. They've changed the aid [retroactively] for everyone on campus. They're the only ones to do that.

YH: Do you think competition between the Ivies is a good thing?

MB: [Financial aid reform] started with Princeton, then you guys reacted, then others, and finally we reacted. As for there being more competition, it finally has to do with the marketplace--and doing the right thing. Some of us were getting dangerously high with our self-help levels. Some students will definitely benefit from lower loan expectations as a result of the competition--that, I think, is a good thing.

YH: How will Brown's admissions be affected by the policy changes?

MB: Brown is the only Ivy League school that is not need-blind. This means each year there is a certain number of students who do not get admitted because we do not have the resources to fund them. Our recent policy change makes us more competitive for the students we have admitted in the past, but our admissions decisions are still contingent on the student's ability to pay.