Anonymous
Post 08/27/2021 03:35     Subject: Brown ED

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.


Statistically they don't, compared with other no-hook admitted. That's why schools created this status so they can give the preference consideration.


This was true maybe decades ago and no longer a reality - alumna here with a DC at Brown.
Anonymous
Post 08/27/2021 03:33     Subject: Brown ED

Anonymous wrote:I'd have your kid talk to the college counselor at his private high school. The school has certainly sent kids to Brown in the last few years and and knows how to package applicants to maximize their chances. For Brown, I would think that a highly tailored essay about how your kid would take advantage of their open curriculum with examples from their record would be a key differentiator.


2nd this - alumna here. Also, do not assume that athletes, URM, and first gens have low grades and scores. The "weakest" students are the children of celebrities, royalty, and billionaires. Everyone else has to have grades and scores median to the overall class.
Anonymous
Post 08/26/2021 23:37     Subject: Brown ED

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.


Statistically they don't, compared with other no-hook admitted. That's why schools created this status so they can give the preference consideration.
Anonymous
Post 08/26/2021 15:08     Subject: Brown ED

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.
Anonymous
Post 08/26/2021 15:06     Subject: Brown ED

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Brown's admissions website says "Please do not assume that your admission chances are improved by applying under the Early Decision plan. The Board of Admission makes the same decisions under Early Decision that it would under the Regular Decision plan." Is this true?


It’s true in that presumably the standards are no different. It’s not true in that they accept a larger percentage of applicants in ED than they do in RD.

According to the Brown Common Data Set, for fall 2020 the ED acceptance rate was 17.5%, and the RD acceptance rate was 6.5%


Right, but part of that 17% are all the people who were being recruited in.
Anonymous
Post 08/26/2021 14:47     Subject: Re:Brown ED

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.
Anonymous
Post 08/26/2021 13:50     Subject: Brown ED

Anonymous wrote:Brown's admissions website says "Please do not assume that your admission chances are improved by applying under the Early Decision plan. The Board of Admission makes the same decisions under Early Decision that it would under the Regular Decision plan." Is this true?


It’s true in that presumably the standards are no different. It’s not true in that they accept a larger percentage of applicants in ED than they do in RD.

According to the Brown Common Data Set, for fall 2020 the ED acceptance rate was 17.5%, and the RD acceptance rate was 6.5%
Anonymous
Post 08/26/2021 13:34     Subject: Brown ED

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.
Anonymous
Post 08/26/2021 13:15     Subject: Brown ED

Brown's admissions website says "Please do not assume that your admission chances are improved by applying under the Early Decision plan. The Board of Admission makes the same decisions under Early Decision that it would under the Regular Decision plan." Is this true?
Anonymous
Post 08/26/2021 12:45     Subject: Re:Brown ED

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



Interesting. From our school, only one got into Brown and she was URM, very low-income and trans.
Anonymous
Post 08/26/2021 12:40     Subject: Re:Brown ED

<<Your kid should apply, but understand that there is a greater than 90% chance of being deferred or rejected. >>

+1

Choose ED school very carefully....Brown received 6,000 ED apps last year
Anonymous
Post 08/26/2021 12:21     Subject: Brown ED

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 all always do this math, but you're not getting it quite right. If you remove all "seats" taken by the hooks, but then you don't remove all those applicants. I get it, it's still a single-digit number, but it's not 1%. Stop blaming everying on athletes and POC. Of course your kids love Brown. Seriously, who wouldn't love Brown. Great, pretty school in an awesome city. But guess what, most people don't get what they want. Stop making excuses and blaming hard-working athletes and people of color who are every bit as qualified.
Anonymous
Post 08/26/2021 12:15     Subject: Brown ED

Anonymous wrote:I'd have your kid talk to the college counselor at his private high school. The school has certainly sent kids to Brown in the last few years and and knows how to package applicants to maximize their chances. For Brown, I would think that a highly tailored essay about how your kid would take advantage of their open curriculum with examples from their record would be a key differentiator.


I think this has been done a million times, but I agree with talking to the college counselor to help set expectations.
Anonymous
Post 08/26/2021 11:58     Subject: Brown ED

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.


Only thing that seems to work at Stanford is smart AND high athletic achievement- ie State champion - Olympic trial, etc.
Anonymous
Post 08/26/2021 11:08     Subject: Brown ED

I'd have your kid talk to the college counselor at his private high school. The school has certainly sent kids to Brown in the last few years and and knows how to package applicants to maximize their chances. For Brown, I would think that a highly tailored essay about how your kid would take advantage of their open curriculum with examples from their record would be a key differentiator.