The issue with alumni interviews is that Brown can’t vet their interviewers well. Yes, sometimes this kind of thing happens. I’m glad that this kid spoke up against his interview, but not as glad that he seems to have done so just to make a big fuss in the media. Read some of the comments in the BDH article:
http://www.browndailyherald.com/2016/02/25/applicant-reports-experiencing-racism-homophobia/
I just got my likely letter in the mail! I’m so flattered and happy!
Just yesterday I was thinking about how it seems everyone is getting invites to great scholarships and honors programs and how in comparison I didn’t get any (minus those with objective criteria). I thought I’d bungled it. I thought I was going to be the kid who didn’t get in anywhere. Which I knew was a common feeling but knowing that didn’t help me any. Beyond happy that I got the likely letter.
Info that may have affected LL: CA resident, did interview in late Jan, semester grades sent in early Feb. Didn’t get an email. Letter was dated 2/18/16 (edited, woops, I wrote the wrong date).
Interesting (?) info in the letter: >32K applications, 1665 spaces (for enrollment) for Class of 2020.
@tatemae Congratulations!
@tatemae Brown doesn’t send emails for likely letters? And congrats by the way!! I bet you were ecstatic!
Oops, I realized-- by CA resident I meant California, not Canada lol. I’m not international.
@Malcomx99 Thank you!
@asiankid88 My bad lol. I thought someone in this thread said they got an LL from Brown through an email so that’s why. Thank you though! I’m really excited. They even offered to pay for expenses to visit (due to fin need), which was nice.
@tatemae Congrats! What date was on the letter?? Ugh you give me hope I so badly want a likely!
@tatemae Are you from NorCal Or SoCal? When was it printed?
Also does anyone know if all letters go out at once? my friend received this letter last year and it was dated March 16
No, not all likely letters are sent (printed date) at once. Several awardees have already confirmed various printed dates and receipt dates. It depends on when the board of admission complete the review of your application and their final determination of LL. E.g. My likely letter print date was 2/15 and received 2/19. Yes, all are sent via regular mail (not email) and no, portal status does not reflect likely status.
Brown is bound by the Ivy Agreement, which stipulates that the Ivy League schools are to release decisions on the same day, Ivy Day.
However, Ivy league schools are allowed to send “likely letters,” the closest to an official acceptance before Ivy Day, to a very small “selected” group of students (both domestic and international). Students that individual schools, for whatever reason (coveted athlete, STEM, Arts, etc) consider top valued applicants aligned with school’s current strategic goals.
Hope this help clarify some confusion.
@RightHand I have that tab as well and am curious to know if everyone has it…
With one of my early action colleges, it seemed that a specific portal change aligned with acceptance (and apparently this occurs with NYU too), so its always worth looking into (but lets not get our hopes up) 
Wait a sec. 32k applicants vying for 1.6k spots? So the acceptance rate would be 5%
What the hell?!?
@rahuilmars231 I think there are actually 2200-2300 admits; only around 1600 accept the offer of admission. That should come out to roughly 8.6%.
The key word is YIELD. Yes, they will offer more admissions than seats available knowing some admits will choose other non-Brown opportunities but the total number of applicants also continue to go up at higher rate than available seats (e.g. this year >32k for 1665 target seats vs last year, Class 2019 profile, 30,396 …with 1620 first year admits) so typical overall trend is reduction in admission rate year after year.
Aaaah but that 8.6% number is still terrifying…
Like obviously I know how low acceptance is (hence why Brown or any of the other ivies is a long shot for anyone) but it’s still scary anytime I see it written out and therefore have to actually think about it
Also I was really hoping it would stay above 9% (which wouldn’t make that much of a difference but you know)
So hypothetically, if 2200 of the admitted applicants decide to enroll at Brown, will that result in another rigorous rubric of selectivity and rejection of some of the admitted candidates? You have to consider all scenarios. How could they possibly accommodate everybody?
@rahuilmars231 No that seems very unlikely. If you are offered admittance then you are offered admittance and are allowed to accept the offer by the deadline. It does not hinge on how many other people accept the offer.
@aBitOfLuck I think it’s around 7% which makes it seem even scarier.
@rahuilmars231 theoretically that could happen, yes, and Brown would have to accept all of them. But admissions has enough data on this that they know that this is never going to happen, because people who get into Brown could also get into a lot of other top schools like Stanford, Harvard, Yale, etc. and choose to go there instead. Or they may not be able to afford Brown and have to therefore go to a different school. etc.
So do you suppose they will also simultaneously reject uber qualified applicants considering they’ll end up getting accepted to even better schools like Harvard and stanford? Again, universities highly value yield don’t they? So admitting over qualified persons for whom an acceptance at an even better school is guaranteed will only diminish their yield rate( which will in turn impact those coveted US News rankings)