Brown ED

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Doesn't Brown have a video submission as part of the application? Spend a lot of time figuring out what makes a good video and work hard on creating it.

I think the video is optional during the pandemic. Seems like art/music kids are encouraged to include a video, which makes sense.

It’s listed as optional but as our counselor said “if you’re serious about going, you turn one in”. For all majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD loved Brown too. She’s high stats, amazing on paper, etc. has done everything she can. Except she didn’t. She could have played the recruitable athlete game and didn’t. She wasn’t born into legacy status. She isn’t URM.

After a discussion about what being a lottery school means, she’s applying ED to her second choice, where the ED bump could make the difference, and applying RD to Brown if it comes to that.

Here’s a powerful exercise. Take Brown’s class. Subtract athletes. Subtract legacies. Subtract URMs. Subtract 1st Gen/ Pell Grant. These numbers are all available. Then look at the real number of seats available based on merit.

Girls are harder admits. So take the number of female applicant left and the number of female seats based on historical data. Then calculate her chances. That new number is very sobering. And for last years splats is blow 1% for some schools Your kid will almost certainly get deferred, and even WL. And not admitted. Is she okay with that?

I’m against Lottery schools as ED IF the family becomes so focused on them that any other outcome is not good enough And they are strung along into May and a June praying for a school that was never gonna happen. Or, if it keeps a kid from applying ED to a low reach /high match school they also love.

At a minimum, have a realistic ED2 school ready to go in late September. Don’t pin everything on Brown and then scramble.

You need not assume that people who are URMs, athletes, 1stgen don't also have top grades and standardized test scores. They generally have those hooks in addition to the merit.

Of course they do. But it’s important to this PP to separate the world into clean buckets of “purely merit-based” and “getting unfair advantages” to explain why their “purely merit-based” kid might not get into Brown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD loved Brown too. She’s high stats, amazing on paper, etc. has done everything she can. Except she didn’t. She could have played the recruitable athlete game and didn’t. She wasn’t born into legacy status. She isn’t URM.

After a discussion about what being a lottery school means, she’s applying ED to her second choice, where the ED bump could make the difference, and applying RD to Brown if it comes to that.

Here’s a powerful exercise. Take Brown’s class. Subtract athletes. Subtract legacies. Subtract URMs. Subtract 1st Gen/ Pell Grant. These numbers are all available. Then look at the real number of seats available based on merit.

Girls are harder admits. So take the number of female applicant left and the number of female seats based on historical data. Then calculate her chances. That new number is very sobering. And for last years splats is blow 1% for some schools Your kid will almost certainly get deferred, and even WL. And not admitted. Is she okay with that?

I’m against Lottery schools as ED IF the family becomes so focused on them that any other outcome is not good enough And they are strung along into May and a June praying for a school that was never gonna happen. Or, if it keeps a kid from applying ED to a low reach /high match school they also love.

At a minimum, have a realistic ED2 school ready to go in late September. Don’t pin everything on Brown and then scramble.

You need not assume that people who are URMs, athletes, 1stgen don't also have top grades and standardized test scores. They generally have those hooks in addition to the merit.

Of course they do. But it’s important to this PP to separate the world into clean buckets of “purely merit-based” and “getting unfair advantages” to explain why their “purely merit-based” kid might not get into Brown.

NP: I don't read PP that way. It is just reality. If you don't have anything but your academics, you are in a different pool. Your chances are better if you have something else going for you. Either way, it is very difficult to get admitted.

[Anonymous]

Anyone else notice how many celebrities kids are at Brown. Every one I read about.

[Anonymous]

Because it’s the fun Ivy

[Anonymous]

Figure out what major or course of study is underrepresented in the applicant pool but the school/faculty would like to fill. Then use the video as an opportunity to market to that niche.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, none of the kids going to Brown this year from DC’s school are URM, recruited athletes, or legacies.

what school is that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Daughter of a family friend applied ED Brown last year. Asian, very high GPA from SF area equivalent of McLean/Langley/BCC/Whitman (10+ APs), almost perfect GPA and good extracurriculars.

She was rejected outright, not even deferred to RD consideration. She got into WashU (full ride), Amherst, Michigan (honors), UNC (honors), Davidson, Carleton, and Duke (legacy). She is now at WashU.

This shows the random nature of applying to an Ivy if you don't have any hooks. ED helps slightly. If Brown is DC's first choice and DC has the credentials, by all means go ahead and apply ED. But perhaps the ED could be put to better use for the 2nd choice school if ED will be decisive, e.g., do you use ED for a marginal benefit for #1 choice or use ED for a decisive (hopefully) benefit for the #2 choice?

If it were my kid, I would have used ED for the 2nd choice (Duke/legacy). However, our friends are doing fine with that free WashU money.

The only surprising part of her results is the full ride to WUSTL. She seems amazing but in same sense so many applicant students are. I wonder what “stood out” above and beyond that the school felt merited a full ride. Good for her!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid was deferred ED and accepted RD. Great grades, scores, EC. No hooks. It is a complete lottery with so many applicants with similar profiles. Apply widely.

This.

I have a friend who quit doing Harvard alumni interviewing because he met so many great kids that he recommended, but most got rejected simply because of the numbers. There are too many extremely qualified kids applying to the same very small group of schools. Because of this, the second tier schools (20-50) are filled with very high stats, great kids, so if your kid goes to one of these, he will have a large cohort of high achievers at his "second tier" school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, none of the kids going to Brown this year from DC’s school are URM, recruited athletes, or legacies.

Glad you posted this. Many posters think this is the criteria for admission to Brown or any college. If first generation, URM athlete would guarantee admission then every.single.college would be majority URM. I am puzzled why so many post that URM or any minority is the gold standard for admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have any insight on getting accepted at Brown ED? Very high stats kid at top DC private. Very involved with a few ECs. No sports. Not URM. Not legacy. Suspect recommendations will be very strong. I am trying to temper expectations, but I honestly don’t see how he could have done any better with extremely high gpa and scores. His essays are coming along fairly well and he is spending a ton of time on them. Naviance data looks encouraging, but I know that can be misleading. This process is just so awful.

He could be a flawless applicant and not get in. It's just the nature of the process. Make sure he has solid backup choices that he truly likes, because from a pure odds perspective, he's likelier to go to one of those.

Friend's son is flawless by all means, perfect everything, reading his resume, you will think he has more than 40 hours per week. REA Standford, and the college application consult thought he is the exact type what Standford is looking for. Got rejected, not even defer.

Stanford defers very few. It's different from the ivies.