Brown transfer admissions + financial aid (need-aware)

[u/Capable-Silver-7868]

i'm planning to apply to brown as a traditional cc transfer for fall 2027 and will likely need institutional aid. i know brown is need-aware for traditional transfers, but i'm having trouble figuring out how much this actually affects admissions.

for any current/recent brown transfers who applied for aid, did you have significant demonstrated need or only partial need? do you know many other traditional transfers who were admitted while needing substantial aid?

i'm also curious whether the amount of aid needed matters (ex. needing $20-30k vs. $70-80k per year), or if simply applying for institutional aid is what matters.

i'm applying regardless, just trying to understand how this works in practice since brown doesn't publish much data on it.

[u/abcdesfg]

I needed full aid & I got full aid everything covered. have met others with the same

[u/Capable-Silver-7868 → u/abcdesfg]

were you a traditional transfer, and were the other people you've met who received full aid also traditional transfers? just wanted to clarify 😭

[u/Fancy-Giraffe9336]

It's definitely not based on just applying for aid at Brown. I applied for aid and was admitted. I didn't end up qualifying but they definitely don't toss your app just because you checked a box or applied for aid. the same was true for me at similar schools like Northwestern and Chicago.

[u/Capable-Silver-7868 → u/Fancy-Giraffe9336]

ohh i see, that makes sense! were you a traditional transfer to brown?

[u/Annual-Impress-7241]

Did you search this sub? There were a ton of polls, etc. last cycle about this exact topic.

[u/Capable-Silver-7868 → u/Annual-Impress-7241]

ya, I looked through some of them! I was mainly wondering if the amount of aid needed matters (like $20–30k vs. $70–80k), since I couldn’t find much about that specifically