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Brown Annual Fund Gifts Support Need-Blind Financial Aid
Average Need-Based Scholarship for a First-Year Student is $24,750 in 2006-2007
Growing up in Brooklyn as a little girl, Esther Dorzin ’07 MD’11 played games of “doctor” with her family. Today, the Brown senior is a PLME student who plans to pursue a career as a cardiologist. For Esther, who is a first-generation college student, the road to Brown was made easier by Brown's financial aid program.
“Financial aid was a determining factor in my being able to attend Brown,” Esther says. “Along the way, it has allowed me the time and freedom to explore my passions.”
While most financial aid packages include a work-study component, Brown offers first-year students receiving financial aid one-time University Work Scholarships. This gives them a chance to engage in activities and interests outside the classroom – extra hours that might otherwise be spent at a job. Esther dove into a number of extracurricular activities that continue to enhance her Brown experience: practicing and performing with Divine Rhythms, a liturgical and step dance troupe; working with the Haitian Student Association; and serving as an outreach coordinator at Brown’s Center for Latin American Studies and the Department of Africana Studies. During her junior year, she spent a semester abroad in Salamanca, Spain and has returned to campus to embark on a thesis that focuses on public health issues affecting the Haitian community. “The first-year work waiver was a fantastic way to transition into college life,” she says. “It allowed me to find a nice balance between the academic rigors and the social opportunities available here.”
Beginning with the Class of 2007, Brown instituted a need-blind financial aid policy as part of the Plan for Academic Enrichment. Need-blind admission allows the University to open its doors and tremendous academic resources to those talented students who are most likely to thrive at Brown, regardless of economic circumstances. As a result, applications for admission have risen, and the University has fully aligned its admission policies with its commitment to academic excellence. The Class of 2010 came through the most selective admission process to date. The average need-based scholarship for these first-year students is $24,750. Forty-two percent of all Brown undergraduates are receiving University aid this year. Gifts to the Brown Annual Fund provide students with these much-needed resources.
Today Esther, the high school student who excelled in the sciences, can look back on three years that have expanded both her knowledge and her worldview – experiences made possible through financial aid. “My learning experience at Brown does not end in the classroom,” she says. “It continues with the students I meet, the discussions I have, and the activities I’ve been able to pursue during my time here.”
"Our experience at Brown was made possible by gifts from those who came before us, and we must follow their lead so that future classes will have the same opportunities we have been afforded. I believe that every Brunonian has a duty to ensure that Brown continues to thrive as the ideal place for the vibrant exchange of ideas and the adventure of self discovery that defines the Brown college experience."
Rajiv Kumar '05 MD'09
Glastonbury, Connecticut
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