Is Brown Worth It? The ROI Data on Brown University (2026)

Brown's sticker price is $85,200 per year. The school has the highest humanities enrollment share of any Ivy and the only Open Curriculum in the league, which produces an earnings profile that looks different from Harvard, Penn, or Cornell.

The actual average net price after aid is $27,043. For families earning under $75,000, net price drops to between $3,200 and $7,600 per year. Graduates earn $85,320 at 10 years and clear their median debt in about 4.5 years.

Here's the data.

Brown by the Numbers

A 4.5-year payback on a $27K net price is strong. Brown's earnings figure runs lower than most peer Ivies, but the combination of low net price and elite graduate school placement keeps the ROI competitive.

The Cost Reality

Brown's net price by family income:

Brown meets 100% of demonstrated financial need and has replaced loans with grants in the aid package for all students under The Brown Promise.

Families earning under $125,000 with typical assets pay $0 in tuition under Brown's financial aid policy. The positive net prices in the lowest brackets reflect personal expenses, books, and travel.

Above $125K, Brown's aid tapers quickly. Families in the $150K-$300K band often pay $55,000-$70,000/year, which is close to sticker.

15.4% of Brown undergraduates receive Pell Grants.

What Graduates Earn

Brown grads earn $76,800 six years after enrolling and $85,320 at 10 years. That 10-year number is the lowest among the eight Ivies.

The reason is mostly structural, not academic:

- Brown has the highest share of humanities and social sciences enrollment in the Ivy League. Those majors pay less at 10 years out, especially before graduate school completion lifts the mid-career number. - The Open Curriculum means a higher share of students mix coursework across fields rather than concentrate in high-earning technical majors. - Brown sends an unusually high share of graduates to medical school, law school, PhD programs, and teaching - careers that show lower earnings at the 10-year mark and much higher earnings at 15-20 years out. - Brown does not have an undergraduate business program and does not recruit into finance and consulting as densely as Penn, Duke, or Cornell.

The earnings premium of 0.067 at 10 years is the lowest in the Ivy League. The mid-career (15-20 year) earnings figure, not captured in Scorecard, is much stronger due to the graduate-school tail.

The Debt Picture

Brown's median debt at graduation is $16,200.

- Median debt: $16,200 - Monthly payment (10-year standard): $172 - Debt-to-earnings ratio (10-year): 0.190 - 3-year repayment rate: 85.8%

The 0.190 debt-to-earnings ratio is the highest of any Ivy but still healthy in absolute terms. Monthly payments of $172 against $85K earnings consume about 2.4% of first-year income.

The 85.8% repayment rate is in line with peer Ivies. The main driver of the rate (as at Harvard) is the graduate-school pipeline, which pauses active principal paydown during residency and PhD training.

Top-Earning Majors

Brown's earnings by major show more spread than most peers:

Brown CS graduates earn $192,700 four years out, matching Cornell and Northwestern CS. Applied Math and Economics clear the $130K-$160K band at four years.

The humanities numbers look weaker than at Harvard, which reflects both the major mix (more students actually study these fields at Brown) and the Open Curriculum (students graduate with less pre-professional prep baked into the degree).

English graduates at Brown earn $58,200 four years out. That figure is below the national median for bachelor's holders, and it's the majors of this type that pull the overall Brown earnings premium down. The degree still produces positive lifetime ROI because net cost is low for need-aid students, but the margin is smaller than at Harvard or Penn.

Peer Comparison

Among the Ivies:

- Harvard: $102K 10-year earnings vs Brown's $85K. $17K gap, driven mostly by Harvard's denser finance and consulting recruiting. - Yale: $88K 10-year earnings. Brown and Yale are close on earnings; Brown is slightly cheaper on net price. - Dartmouth: $93K 10-year earnings. Dartmouth wins on earnings and net price, primarily because of Tuck-adjacent recruiting. - Columbia: $102K 10-year earnings. The other urban Ivy, with higher earnings but nearly double Brown's median debt. - Cornell: $97K 10-year earnings. Cornell wins on engineering and Dyson weight. - Penn: $103K 10-year earnings. Penn is the Ivy earnings leader outside Harvard, due to Wharton.

Brown runs lower than most peers on raw earnings because the student body self-selects into fields that pay lower at the 10-year mark. If you compare apples-to-apples within a major (Brown CS vs Harvard CS, Brown Econ vs Yale Econ), the gap is small to nonexistent.

The Verdict

Brown scores 92/100. The Open Curriculum is a real value, the need-based aid is aggressive, and graduate school placement is elite.

Worth it for: - Admitted students from families earning under $125K. Tuition is covered and the earnings premium works even in lower-earning majors. - Students headed for medical school, law school, or PhD programs. Brown's placement rate into top graduate programs is in the top five nationally. - Humanities and interdisciplinary students who specifically want the Open Curriculum. Brown is the only Ivy offering this, and the educational fit matters. - CS, Applied Math, and Economics concentrators. The earnings match any peer Ivy.

Think harder if: - You're in a family earning $150K-$300K and planning to major in English, History, or another humanities field. Net price will run $55-$65K/year, and the 10-year earnings premium in those majors is modest. - You want heavy finance or consulting recruiting access. Brown places graduates into these fields but at lower density than Penn, Harvard, or Duke. - You're pre-business. Brown has no undergraduate business school, which matters for recruiting access to certain firms.

Data: College Scorecard, as of 2024.