Opening Brown up to students from around the world, and helping them when they land

By land, by sea, by air: bringing the best to Brown

The campaign has helped Brown travel around the world to recruit promising students, whether they hail from a coastal bustling city or a mountainside village.

“As an international Brown alum, I am proud to see the University being front-footed in recruiting students from far-flung places around the world,” says Maithili Parekh ’02, who came to Brown from Mumbai, India. “They enrich College Hill and our entire community, and help cement Brown as a truly global institution.”

Thanks to a gift from an anonymous donor, the admission team has been able to expand its recruitment efforts into new countries and regions. During the 2018-19 academic year, they visited 20 countries. This year, they’ve visited 33 countries, including Czechia, Indonesia, Uruguay, Romania, Malaysia, and Zimbabwe.

But finding that talent is only one part of the equation. For many international students, the single biggest factor in their decision to come to Brown often comes down to the cost. This academic year, Brown scholarships for international students are on average more than $20,000 higher than those for domestic students.

During BrownTogether, the University launched a new fundraising initiative to expand its financial aid packages for international students. After raising $120 million in the initial ramp-up phase, Brown announced it would launch need-blind admission for all undergraduate international students starting with the Class of 2029, which will arrive on campus in Fall 2025.

“The international alumni community has been aching for this,” says Parekh. “This is a real milestone in helping make Brown a place where people of all cultures, backgrounds, and beliefs can wrestle with some of the biggest topics of our world today.”

In 2021, only $8.9 million of Brown’s financial aid budget was earmarked for international students, resulting in just 15% of international undergraduate students receiving financial aid compared with 44% of domestic students. With the new financial aid initiative, that figure has jumped to $24 million, enabling the University to provide financial support to 34% of international students.

“Increasing the financial aid budget will allow us to accept students who may not have been previously considered due to financial limitations,” says Christina LeMarbre, senior associate director of international admission. “We’re going to be able to consider all of these incredibly talented, deserving, curious, and engaged applicants equally. It’s not only going to increase the socioeconomic diversity of our student body, but also geographic diversity.”

As part of their financial aid package, Brown covers the cost of health insurance and a roundtrip plane ticket from a student’s country of residence each academic year.

“I can’t believe that Brown can be so generous. All I needed to do was take my bags and go. They took care of it all,” says Le.

Sustaining this aid program will require the continued generosity and support of Brown’s community. Efforts to raise the additional $100 million needed to make the financial aid initiative for international students permanent are currently underway.

Calling Brown home

Over the course of the campaign, the University has also enhanced the services and programs that help international students acclimate to life at Brown after they arrive.

While many offices and departments across campus contribute to this effort, the Global Brown Center for International Students is exclusively dedicated to supporting and uplifting the international student experience. The center serves as a “home away from home,” hosting workshops and serving as a go-to resource for this student population. 

Their flagship event is the annual International Student Orientation. For 25 years, this five-day, pre-orientation program has given first-year international students a headstart on their transition to collegiate life at Brown and in the U.S. This year’s event was the biggest ever, drawing students from more than 80 countries.

Though the center oversees it, the event is heavily facilitated by the International Mentorship Program (IMP)—which was actually founded by Parekh in 1999 while she was a student. Primarily run and organized by international students, this program connects first-year international students with a peer mentor who provides support and guidance—offering insights informed by their own experiences.

“We want students to leave international orientation feeling like they belong here. We want them to feel like this is a space that they can call home and that, in so doing, they’re actually helping us co-create what home means,” says Andrew Heald, director of the Global Brown Center.

Le credits both the orientation and IMP as instrumental parts of her Brown experience, preparing and empowering her to take advantage of all that the school has to offer. She’s been able to explore new academic interests through the Open Curriculum, discovering a love for computer science—despite coming to Brown initially interested in sociology. She’s tapped into Brown’s health and wellness offerings, including weekly acupuncture sessions. She’s even taken up ballroom dancing. 

“Brown is the only place where I could do all this,” says Le. “Without the generous financial aid I received, none of this would have been possible.”