Brown University Eliminates Loans From Its Financial Aid Offerings

Starting next year, the Ivy League school won’t include loans as part of student aid packages. Instead of asking students to take out loans for uncovered costs, students will be offered a scholarship, which they won’t have to pay back.

Brown University’s new approach, called “the Brown Promise,” is aimed at middle-class families, said university spokesman Brian Clark.

“They don’t necessarily qualify for the amount of aid that lower-income families might, but they don’t have the ability have to pay in full like those from higher backgrounds might,” Clark said. “These are families and students who often confront difficult decisions when deciding where students should attend college,”

Brown already covers full tuition for students whose family income falls below $100,000 dollars a year. For the 2017-2018 academic year, Brown reports more than 1,000 of its roughly 7,000 undergraduates had loans as part of their financial aid packages. According to Clark, a similar number of students stand to benefit from The Brown Promise if enrollment remains the same.

Read more: http://ripr.org/post/brown-university-eliminates-loans-its-financial-aid-offerings#stream/0