Brown University is a private Ivy league university in Providence, Rhode Island, that is known for its unique teaching, curriculum, and research. This prestigious university is ranked #14 in national universities. Its tuition and fees is about $53,400 and about 43% of students are receiving financial aid. Brown offers $112.5 million. With that said, Brown plans on eliminating student loans from undergraduate financial aid packages. Brown plans on offering grant funds to replace student loans which will impact 6,500 undergraduates currently at Brown. If Brown is able to raise $120 million to support this, the student loan free financial aid plan can begin as soon as 2018-2019 academic year.
How will Brown get the money for the grand funds? This money will be coming from a portion of an already existing $3 billion fundraising campaign which is called BrownTogether Campaign. Brown will be calling this The Brown Promise: The Future of Financial Aid at Brown. Brown University wants to make it accessible for students coming from all social economic levels to have an education without worrying about the repayment of student loans for the future. Many benefits will come from this no-loan policy. As President Christina Paxson said, “It hurts us because we’re not getting the students that we want, and it hurts them because they’re not getting to go to the school that they want to attend. Student debt is something that is really at odds with everything we value as part of the Brown curriculum.” This policy will only have a positive outcome. Perhaps other universities will implement their own student loan free financial aid.