Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious, I hear a lot about aacepted students with interdisciplinary interests who want to use Brown's flexibility to take an eclectic set of courses, but I've never heard of a student whose answer to "why open curriculum" was "so I can singularly focus on my STEM interests, UK-style". Does anyone know of a student who was accepted with that angle? From reading brown's page it seems that they want the former type of student, not the latter.

Brown’s application includes a question about the open curriculum and how the applicant would take advantage of it. If the student can answer this question compellingly, they’re a good candidate for Brown. If they can’t, they aren’t.

So this is slightly different, but I'm a Brown grad (though 30 years ago) - I studied International Relations. Because of the open curriculum, I didn't take any math or science classes (other than Economics, which was required for Int'l Relations) during my 4 years. It opened up spots in my courseload for courses across the Int'l Relations spectrum, which is quite diverse. So, not STEM, which is what you originally asked about, but it's sort of the same idea of singularly focusing on an area. I loved Brown and the curriculum.

True. But also of course,many many many students can answer that question compellingly and will still get rejected.

Anonymous wrote:Just curious, I hear a lot about aacepted students with interdisciplinary interests who want to use Brown's flexibility to take an eclectic set of courses, but I've never heard of a student whose answer to "why open curriculum" was "so I can singularly focus on my STEM interests, UK-style". Does anyone know of a student who was accepted with that angle? From reading brown's page it seems that they want the former type of student, not the latter.

Brown’s application includes a question about the open curriculum and how the applicant would take advantage of it. If the student can answer this question compellingly, they’re a good candidate for Brown. If they can’t, they aren’t.

Anonymous wrote:Just curious, I hear a lot about aacepted students with interdisciplinary interests who want to use Brown's flexibility to take an eclectic set of courses, but I've never heard of a student whose answer to "why open curriculum" was "so I can singularly focus on my STEM interests, UK-style". Does anyone know of a student who was accepted with that angle? From reading brown's page it seems that they want the former type of student, not the latter.

They absolutely want the former kind of student. The latter kind of student can, and should, attend a tech school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really sucks for a friend that got deferred while the sister was hiding in a supply closet just last Saturday, and now this one has to write a bunch of new apps with all kinds of emotions going on in the house when they were even more than qualified- better stats than the older sib. It just feels especially cruel in all of this turmoil.

It’s a sad situation, but it’s not like Admissions should change their decision or use this as a considering factor.

I think deferral for one that would be a likely admit (was qualified) just to let other institutional priorities in for yield- yes- they should have increased ED admits given these awful circumstances and gone ahead with admittance.

Families are absolutely reeling and on edge right now. You can’t understand that trauma. They will need all of the support in the coming months and having a sib on campus helps. It’s why twins are given priority in regular years.

You’re ridiculous. Who thinks twins should be given priority? What about a cousin of a current student? Former neighbor? Someone who had a similar, rare diagnosis as a tween? Anyone could be a support but that’s not what admission offers should be based on. (Show me a CDS that says twins are given priority.)

Not only are many kids “qualified” for highly rejective schools, the fact is there are too few spots to accept them all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really sucks for a friend that got deferred while the sister was hiding in a supply closet just last Saturday, and now this one has to write a bunch of new apps with all kinds of emotions going on in the house when they were even more than qualified- better stats than the older sib. It just feels especially cruel in all of this turmoil.

It’s a sad situation, but it’s not like Admissions should change their decision or use this as a considering factor.

I think deferral for one that would be a likely admit (was qualified) just to let other institutional priorities in for yield- yes- they should have increased ED admits given these awful circumstances and gone ahead with admittance.

Families are absolutely reeling and on edge right now. You can’t understand that trauma. They will need all of the support in the coming months and having a sib on campus helps. It’s why twins are given priority in regular years.

So Brown owes these families sibling acceptances as some kind of reparation for what has happened?

No one is a likely admit unless an athlete or otherwise strongly hooked. Sorry, but this is coming across as very entitled.

Two at our CA private, one athlete, one not.