<p>Have to completely disagree with you kelly, the yield is probably the most important stat from admissions since it speaks to how desirable a school is. Who cares if the kids are smart, if none of them want to be there it’s going to be a ****ty environment.</p>
<p>As you said, Brown is not stupid, they know these forums exist, so if they only sent the e-mails to kids who were going to get in, people would find out quickly, and then you lose whether it was the e-mail itself, or just the fact that kids got in early that swayed them.</p>
<p>I also would offer up the explanation that James Miller mentioned multiple times in a webinar he held with alumni interviewers the importance of putting a personal touch on the process (Brown boasts the largest alumni interviewer program), and these e-mails would be another means to that end.</p>
<p>I do agree the ultimate test will be the admissions results, but I bet you’ll find that these e-mails didn’t correlate.</p>
<p>^^ Your explanation about humanizing the process would be more persuasive if all Brown candidates received all these emails. As this forum is proving, some candidates received these emails and some did not. I think this provides some kind of evidence worth exploring, and a logical conclusion is that the only reason (since email costs nothing) that Brown would send email to one set of candidates and not another set is that there is logic to that discrimination and, further, the only logical conclusion relating to discrimination is that one set of candidates is deliberately intended to receive the email while the other set (who did not receive it) are not intended to receive the email. The only reason why one candidate set would receive an email that another doesn’t is because Brown seeks still to solicit the good will of that former set and not the latter (because Brown has no need of their good will, having rejected them). Sorry to sound like Mr. Spock, all logical and all, but since we both agree that Brown is not a stupid school, I believe my logical inferences work here.</p>
<p>kellybkk, the problem with your logic is that Brown does not – and cannot under Ivy agreements – let its acceptances be released sooner than the official Ivy date. As I pointed out above and in the other thread, there are other reasons why these emails might be generated. All the people who didn’t get the email might get it tomorrow or next week (as happened with the first email that went out). </p>
<p>Also, Brown wants to have a positive relationship with all applicants, including the ones that it denies. Your statement, that Brown “has no need of their good will having rejected them” is NOT TRUE. These students might consider Brown for graduate school; could talk about Brown to their siblings, friends, classmates; could work for Brown as professors or staff in the future. Brown has a longer view of its relationships than just three months in the life of a high school senior.</p>
<p>And also remember that almost 30,000 applied to Brown, and the number discussing Brown on CC is a tiny, tiny percentage of that total number. You really can’t draw any definitive conclusions about Brown admissions from this forum.</p>
<p>Why doesn’t someone ask about these emails on the Brown admissions Facebook page and see what happens?</p>
<p>As you know, this prohibition is routinely evaded through the use of “likely letters.” That one set of applicants receives email that another set doesn’t is simply tantamount to supplying likely letters to the first set.</p>
<p>Given the hypotheses in this (and the other Brown emails thread) I prepared the following ACT/SAT CR question (I know, Iknow… 6 possible answers… Sorry about that).</p>
<p>People report on CC that some applicants got both Brown emails (“we are reading your app” and “life at brown”) while other applicants only got one (or none?) of these messages. What is the explanation?</p>
<p>(a) A computer randomly selects to send emails to applicants.</p>
<p>(b) The CC sample is too small. In addition, some people may have missed the email on spam filters.</p>
<p>(c) Brow read a bunch of applications… Sent emails to those… Still needs to read the other applications.</p>
<p>(d) Brown is running an experiment to see the effect of these messages.</p>
<p>(e) It is a sign that Brown liked some applications better than others (although this does not mean that emails are likely letters).</p>
<p>(f) Emails are likely letters.</p>
<p>What would you rule out using the “process of elimination” and what would be your best guess?</p>
<p>I would rule out alternatives (a), (d), and (f). I would probably choose alternative (e).</p>
<p>I concur with “e,” although I lean toward “f” because why would Brown bother sending something half-behinded to anyone – that would be even a worse tease and I don’t think Brown is saying “we like you, now resume normal programming.” That’s a waste of time and brain cells on the part of both Brown and the recipient. It’s ok to send out the “we got your app, good luck” email to everyone, but second communications reaching only a select set will clearly has significant assumptions read into them and, I believe, Brown WANTS those recipients to read those assumptions into them (without actually being explicit). This may all be too cute by half, but then doesn’t that fit with the Brown ethos?</p>
<p>Truthfully, based on your proposed choices, I’d go with b. As I’ve said in this thread and the other one, I got the email but only after checking my Spam folder, since a lot of my college-related email has gone there lately. As much as I’d like to believe that the email indicates that I’ve jumped a hurtle in the admissions process, I highly doubt that. Maybe it’s because I don’t have the typical off-the-charts stats for Brown and it was a big reach for me, and I don’t want to get my hopes up by reading the “faux likely letter” theories. I say just leave it alone. March 29th will be here quicker than we think. And THAT’S the real indicator. </p>
<p>I promise you guys that these mean nothing towards your decisions. This question, or something like it, comes up every year and always ends up with no correlation between who gets/doesn’t get the letters and who gets admitted/waitlisted/rejected. Just chill, please.</p>
<p>Kelly’s argument:
P1: Brown was selective in whom to send the emails.
P2: Positive selectivity means positive affirmation
Q.E.D.: Brown’s email was a positive affirmation.</p>
<p>Kelly you’ve considered everything in your ratiocination except one important thing.</p>
<p>the freaking content of the letter.</p>
<p>Re-read the letter. Does that sound like a likely letter to you? I’ve received two likely letters (from Dartmouth and William and Mary) and they’re nowhere as nearly ambiguous as the email that Brown sent out. Don’t sit around trying to argue with what little evidence we have. Your argument, as “logical” as it may be, neglects this fact and tries to go off with the fact that it was not sent to all of the applicants…</p>
<p>For those who didn’t get an email- did you put your primary (and by that I mean the account that you religiously check) email address in your application? Did you set up an online account to check your application/financial aid status? What email did you use? </p>
<p>Judging by the ambiguousness of the email, I think it’s just a nice way to keep up with applicants and allow prospective students to learn more about the school.</p>
<p>I looked at some of the previous posts by those who said here that they received the “Life After Brown” email. It seems the majority is URM. Do anyone who is not an URM received it?</p>
<p>Likely letters are only sent by mail. chill. out. It feels like some of you are clinging to this selective email=Brown likes you theory to make yourselves feel better.</p>
<p>Holy cow. How the thread has gone wild in the past few days. One of you asked what URM means: underrepresented minority. My son, who is the applicant, refuses to engage on these forums and make himself insane. So, I’m the surrogate insane mother on his behalf. He has not received any REAL likely letters. He has, however, received both of the Brown emails, but that is it. We shall see…</p>
<p>I just thought that I would let everyone know that last year, LLs didn’t come out until mid-March! The emails aren’t any sort of likely letter. So calllllmmmm down</p>