Brown has made affordability into one of the main points in its pitch to prospective students. On its website, Brown states that its financial aid policies ensure “that no student who belongs at Brown will encounter cost as a barrier.” In Brown’s announcement welcoming the class of 2030, the University claimed “robust financial aid will make Brown more accessible than ever for many of those who enroll.” In recent years, the University has backed up many of its statements with actual financial aid policies: an income threshold for zero parental contribution in 2008, need blind admissions for all students and the Brown Promise in 2018, which replaced all student loans with grants.
But while it might seem like Brown has been a leader with its financial aid policies, the University has failed to update a key component: the threshold for zero parental contribution.
The zero parental contribution threshold is the maximum household income where parents are not expected to contribute anything to their child’s cost of attendance, which includes books, room and board, and tuition. In 2008, Brown decided that most families earning under $60,000 should contribute nothing to their child’s education. 18 years later, Brown costs twice as much and inflation has diluted these families’ purchasing power, yet Brown’s $60,000 threshold has remained. As the middle class gets squeezed out of elite American institutions of higher education, this threshold directly affects these students’ ability to attend Brown. Amidst a nationwide reckoning with the value of higher education — and as Brown’s cost of attendance approaches the $100,000 mark — the University must reconsider this policy.
Nationally, whether a college education is worth the ever-rising prices is being called into question — a record-low 31% of Americans consider a college education to be very important. In 2013, that number was 70%. There is a growing perception across the country that elite universities like Brown are institutions that only serve to benefit already advantaged students. A report commissioned by Yale found that one of the main causes for souring public opinion of academia is soaring tuition costs. While Yale has since taken steps to address these rising costs — last year they announced that all students from families making under $200,000 per year would attend school with no tuition cost — Brown has made no such similar moves.
Since 2008, Brown’s cost of attendance has risen from $47,470 to $97,116. In addition to the income threshold for zero parental contribution staying the same, the income threshold for full tuition coverage — where parents are not expected to pay any of Brown’s $74,568 tuition, not including additional costs related to attendance — has also not changed since 2008, sitting at a $125,000 maximum. This low threshold matters because students who fall just above this range — students from middle-class backgrounds, a group that is underrepresented at elite American institutions of higher education — may struggle to pay for school, deterring them from applying.
The economic background of Brown students supports the conclusion that the majority of Ivy League students come from wealthy backgrounds. The Herald’s Spring 2026 poll found that nearly half of Brown students attend with zero financial aid. Only 10% of students receive grants covering full tuition.
A lack of middle-class representation at Brown has historical precedent. A 2017 New York Times report found that 70% of students at Brown came from the top 20% income bracket while only four percent of students came from the bottom 20%. That leaves only 26% of students from the middle class at Brown. Among private universities throughout the country more broadly in 2019, 42% of students were from the middle class.
The lack of economic diversity in Brown’s student body stems, in part, from its financial aid policies that hurt middle-class representation. Brown consistently places in the bottom when compared to peer institutions in terms of percentage of students on financial aid and the income threshold for tuition coverage.
It is not completely fair to compare Brown’s financial aid policies to schools like Harvard or Yale, whose endowments dwarf Brown’s each by a factor greater than five. However, there are many schools with similar endowment-per-student figures — and even some with lower endowment-per-student than Brown — that have income thresholds for zero parental contribution that far exceed Brown’s. College Raptor estimates Brown’s endowment per student at around $563,000. For example, Johns Hopkins offers free cost of attendance to families that make less than $100,000 per year, yet their endowment per student is $100,000 less than Brown’s, by College Raptor’s estimate. Similarly, Cornell’s endowment per student is around $385,000, slightly more than half of what Brown’s is, and their threshold for zero parental contribution is $75,000. Clearly, Brown has allocated its budget differently than these schools, to the detriment of financial aid awardment.
Enriching economic diversity is to the interest of all students at Brown. It becomes much more difficult to broaden one’s worldview and form connections with people unlike ourselves when the majority of students at Brown come from the same income bracket. But because admission to and attendance at schools like Brown can drastically change students’ economic trajectories, the choices Brown makes surrounding who receives financial aid has consequences far beyond campus. Just as universities can serve as vessels for economic advancement, their admission practices can preserve existing economic inequalities that limit social mobility.
The University should establish a committee to consider the proposal from Students for Educational Equity that recommends raising the income threshold for zero parent contribution. This practical step would enable the University to assess the cost of such a policy and how it would affect the amount of financial aid given to students across socioeconomic backgrounds. Brown’s mission statement is to “serve the community, the nation and the world.” This cannot be fulfilled unless Brown increases its minimum threshold for zero parent contribution, enabling more middle-class students to enroll.
Max Mooney ’29 can be reached at max_mooney@brown.edu. Please send responses to this column to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
