The University is working to make more scholarship funds available for international students, mainly through the work of a student group and fundraisers, as part of its overall goals to internationalize and increase cultural and socioeconomic diversity on campus.
"We're need-aware with international students. We need to raise more money to support a greater cross-section of international students," said Matthew Gutmann P'14, vice president for international affairs. Need-aware admission takes a student's ability to pay into account.
To make Brown more appealing to international students from families who may not be able to afford the full cost of college, the university is increasing the amount of scholarship funds that international students are to receive, largely through the efforts of fundraising and the Brown International Organization Scholarship Committee, BRIOSCH.
"We are constantly raising money for scholarships, for students anywhere," Gutmann said, adding that international funding is "a major part of fundraising" for Brown. Some funds are targeted for specific parts of the world, he said.
While the number of international students who apply and are accepted to U.S. universities has increased in the past five years, funding for them remains relatively dependent on private donations, typically from friends, family members and alums, said Anne Francois-Poncet '10.5, senior adviser to the BRIOSCH committee.
The more than 50 international scholarships Brown offers yearly are not full, and only 174 out of 535 international students currently receive funding, she said. Scholarships typically cover only tuition, room and board, but can also be used toward personal use, depending on need.
The Brown International Organization is a student-run group that shares the University's goal of a more diverse student population through scholarship fundraising, as well as its Ambassadorship Program, which allows Brown students studying abroad to give presentations in various high schools around the world, said Angela Wu '11, president of the committee.
BRIOSCH has raised enough money in the past 13 years for four endowed scholarships, with restrictions.
Through the Ambassadorship Program, a volunteer initiative started approximately two years ago, currently enrolled students are trained and given resources to speak at high schools abroad in order to increase awareness about Brown.
International admission officers have given presentations at high schools around the world for years, and every year they actively attempt to visit new schools, said Gutmann. Brown faculty will also go into schools and meet with prospective parents, while alums meet with prospective students at receptions and other Brown events in a "multi-pronged approach" that involves the admission office, faculty, students, alums and parents.
Officials hope reaching out to a larger audience will increase the diversity of potential applicants. "The University has identified that we need as many international students as possible," Gutmann said.
"Our numbers of international students are among the highest in the Ivy League. A lot of schools have increased their numbers — as has Brown," he said. "I think one of the most important things to understand about international students is that they're looking for the same things that U.S. students are looking for — a creative and independent role in figuring out their studies, opportunities to do research with faculty."
One BRIOSCH committee goal is the formation of an international network of students, alums and friends of Brown.
"There's a new initiative to connect local alums associations to Brown in the long term … and bring them together to increase awareness, to help students who are international learn more about the University," said Mohammad Saigol '12, vice president of the committee. He emphasized the importance of personal experiences in the Ambassadorship Program.
BRIO may create an advisory board including former international students and young alums to increase the diversity of the Brown population.
"There are University initiatives, a wide variety of internationalization advancement initiatives that are part of Brown," said Francois-Poncet, who is proposing the advisory board. "But there's not anything similar to this at any other university. Not student-led, anyway."
Wu said, "We're all willing to do so much for people we don't even know. I think that speaks a lot for who we are."
