<p>Today’s edition of the Brown Daily Herald reports that nearly 25,000 applications were received this year – an increase of 21% over last year. Here’s the full story:</p>
<p>Alright, I know this is the baby boomer generation, most applicants of all time, etc., but 21% (?!?!?!) more applications than were sent by the second largest graduating class in US history? </p>
<p>Don't forget that now all are competing with International applicants-these colleges which once got mostly students from the Northeast are getting students from around the world.</p>
<p>It would be interesting to see how many of the students who applied to Brown this year also applied to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, UPenn, Dartmouth, and Cornell. And compare that to how many applicants cross-applied to the whole list of 8 in years past. </p>
<p>As speculated in the linked article, students are applying to all 8 Ivies due to the widely-publicized finaid plans they have (10% of income; no loans; 100% of need in grants, etc). I'll bet that in years past these same caliber of students would have picked the 2 or 3 Ivies that matched their criteria, and ignored the few that did not. But the lousy economy has decimated college savings plans, made parents unsure if they will have paychecks next year, and made many second-tier colleges poor due to collapsed endowments. Applying to an Ivy is like buying a $75 lottery ticket and hoping for a $30-40-50K payout.</p>
<p>I predict the Ivies will take a hit on their "yield" numbers when the US News rankings come out next year -- if they are all getting apps from, and accepting, the same 5000 kids, something has to give. And we all know how they chase the yield. It will be interesting to see how this application cycle changes the game...</p>
<p>what frightens me is that these kids who are applying to all the ivies, or at least to a huge chunk of them, will probably be accepted to a lot of them, and yours truly, who only applied to one ivy league (brown obviously), will be rejected. If accepted, I would almost certainly go there unless they gave me an abysmal aid package (which would be weird - they give great aid generally), but i'm afraid that all of these kids who really want to go to harvard or yale but figured "hey, i might as well apply to brown too!" are gonna drown out the kids with more interest who maybe would have otherwise gotten in.</p>
<p>erika27- That is soo true! I love Brown & that's the only ivy I'm applying to and its certainly because Brown is the right "fit" for me. Now that theirs an increase I don't think I have a chance. Esepcially based on my standardized testing skills. I pray that I would get waitlisted lol. I really do. I just love Brown! I wish everybody luck!</p>
<p>erika27, I wouldn't go that far. I applied to 5 ivys, but am confident about none of them. There is, actually, a nice chance that I will be rejected by all five. I loved Brown when I visited, and have stayed at the campus a couple times before. But, nonetheless, I think that there are a great deal of multi-ivy applicants that may get turned down at each school. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>scary but I agree this is probably because of the move to the common app.
[quote]
what frightens me is that these kids who are applying to all the ivies, or at least to a huge chunk of them, will probably be accepted to a lot of them, and yours truly, who only applied to one ivy league (brown obviously), will be rejected. If accepted, I would almost certainly go there unless they gave me an abysmal aid package (which would be weird - they give great aid generally), but i'm afraid that all of these kids who really want to go to harvard or yale but figured "hey, i might as well apply to brown too!" are gonna drown out the kids with more interest who maybe would have otherwise gotten in.
[/quote]
oh my god, this is my biggest fear too. I wonder whether it would be inappropriate to say this to my interviewer.</p>
<p>I do remember reading from their common data set that they consider "applicant interest" a "very important" factor in admissions. but how do you show it?</p>
<p>It appears that Brown's applications rose disproportionately to our peers, so I don't think that an increase of Ivy applications across the board accounts for all of this hike.</p>
<p>University officials seem to think that 6-7% can be accounted for because of the switch to the Common Application (I read somewhere this is the maximum effect from the CA in their opinion). I think other peers were seeing numbers around 5-10% increases, so if we say that 100% of that increase is due to better financial aid policies, we're still looking at at least a few percent, possibly as much as 5% being unaccounted for in those two factors.</p>
<p>Perhaps we're selling ourselves better? Perhaps our desirability and/or prestige has seen a sharp increase this last year? I'm not sure.</p>
<p>I think it's attracted more then the "average ivy league applicants". Brown to me tends to be the most self-developing university once your there. I'm Haitian (born in Haiti) and after doing research on Brown University I discovered it's history. It's not common to see that a school like Brown University with its prestigious reputation was founded by a family that were wealthy predominantly because of their involvement in the slave trade and then today there is an African-American president of the school. I don't know if it's just me but alot of my friends and I are taking that into interest. When I pick my college list I choose them with my heart. I know that maybe a little soft or corny but I want to be in a place where I can feel like I'm a part of a family which involves me researching the school beyond information sessions and tours. I felt like the Brown community is really like a family. One that I would feel proud to spend four years in. I think the increase is definetly because of the rising interest of applicants to apply to Brown, hopefully those who are truly passionate about attending the school. I'm sure though that Brown adcoms will weed out the ones who applied to several ivies and choose those who have an interest in Brown.</p>