A few questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
1

<p>So according to the new US News Rankings, Brown is the “worst ivy” (athough that is absolute crap). Thus, I was wondering first of all if this could mean that brown will become less competitive for the class of 2008 (aka me :D) because a lot of people live and die by these stupid rankings. I really like Brown and Cornell, with some preference to brown, and so I was wondering if you could make a suggestion about whether I should apply to brown or cornell based on my stats as posted below. Also, I guess that I’ll turn this into a chances since I have the oppurtunity, so what are my chances at brown :D. (sorry about that, but I just cant resist)</p>

<p>(btw I am applying ED)
resume:
*I am an Asian Indian Male
*From a competitive public high school in Oregon, Beaverton High School, which was also rated the best AP school in Oregon, so yeah, its a smart school.
*student body at school = 500+</p>

<p>The Numbers/ECs
*Freshman year:
4.0 with honors in 2 classes for both semesters</p>

<p>*Sophomore Year:
3.8125 overall for both semesters
(Bs in AP Chem 1st sem, Precalc 2nd sem, Social Studies 1st sem)</p>

<p>*Junior Year (projected)
Human Anat/Phys-A,A
IB Bio HL 1-A,A
Spanish 3-A,A
IB Calculus-A, A (might be at worst 1 “B”)
IB Psychology-A,A
Team Sports-A
IB English-B,B (might get 1 A)
IB Tok 1-B</p>

<p>*class rank UW right now = 38/515. Weighted = 30/515 (will go up because not many kids have taken hard classes yet)
*IB Diploma Candidate (to be)
*Will take AP exams in addition to IB exams, so I could be AP Scholar w/ distinction or just AP scholar as well.
*Varsity tennis 4 years (will have 4)
*Science Team 4 years (will have 4)
*World Quest Trivia 4 years (will have 4)
*Science Club Treasurer (1 year)
*Science Club VP (2 years)
*Math Club VP (2 years)
*Speech and Debate (2 years)
*Portland Youth Philharmonic (3 years)
*Mathfest Algebra 2 1st place freshman year
*OIMT Participant Fresh Year
*Mathfest Participant sophomore year
*Oregon Museum of Science and Industry Rising Star Program (will have 150-175 volunteer hours done)
*Mathcounts Tutor (about 50+ volunteer hours)
*Second chair in Portland Youth Conservatory Orchestra
*(I will run for school officer and I should be able to get a leadership position in Speech and Debate just as an FYI)</p>

<p>Right now I get about a 1920-2050 on the SAT, 26-30 on ACT according to Practice Tests for SAT, and the PLAN (it’s like the PSAT for SAT except the ACT version) on ACT. </p>

<p>Also, what should I do to improve my chances and actually have a shot at either cornell or Brown ED.</p>

2

<p>Princeton Review's 'Toughest to Get Into' list '06:</p>

<ol>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li><em>BROWN</em></li>
<li>Yale</li>
</ol>

<p>And that's after a couple years of being in the US News gutter. You may find that the US News rankings do surprisingly little to lessen interest in "hot" colleges. And the O.C. and Bill O'Reilly attention hasn't hurt, I'd guess. So basically, don't plan on it being so easy to get in, and work as hard as possible at making yourself a great applicant, if Brown is where you really want to be. If you want to get in easy, apply to Yale :-P.</p>

3

<p>:Z MG, what PR book did you get that from? It doesn't list any of the other selective schools, so should anyone assume that they are easier to get in than the above five?</p>

<p>Just because Brown's ranked lower doesn't mean it'll be any easier to get into. A lot of people live by the rankings, but a lot of people live by that OC show too.</p>

4

<p>The full list is at:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/rankings/rankingDetails.asp?CategoryID=1&TopicID=10%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/rankings/rankingDetails.asp?CategoryID=1&TopicID=10&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>It includes the 20 toughest to get into, I just didn't feel like replicating it all.</p>

5

<p>Brown jumped up that much on the list?! Whoa. That makes me a lot more nervous about applying, especially if they're ranking it tougher than Yale....</p>

6

<p>Eh... Don't let it worry you that much. There's no one kind of person they're looking for, and you might be squarely within their interests. I know just about a million people ( from high school; everyone at Brown is happy :-P ) who were unhappy that they didn't apply to more places.</p>

7

<p>Errr... i dunno how much trust can you place on a ranking that place WUSTL above Columbia...</p>