Do Carnegie Mellon and Brown offer merit aid to undergraduates?

The biggest practical difference is that Carnegie Mellon does offer some undergraduate merit scholarships, while Brown does not award merit scholarships to undergraduates. Brown’s aid is need-based, and its financial assistance is centered on what your family demonstrates it needs through the aid process. Carnegie Mellon also gives need-based aid, but merit money can be part of the picture there for some students.

For Brown, you should plan as though any institutional help would come from need-based financial aid rather than academic or talent-based merit awards. That means your expected cost will depend much more on your family’s financial profile than on whether you are one of the top applicants academically.

At Carnegie Mellon, merit scholarships exist, but they are not something most applicants should count on as a core part of affordability. They tend to be limited and competitive, so even a very strong student should still treat CMU primarily as a school where need-based aid matters more than merit in practical planning.

Between the two, Brown is the clearer answer on policy: no undergraduate merit aid. CMU is the one where merit aid is possible, but not something to build your list around unless the net price is still workable without it.