Brown interview FAQ and answers

It was at the end of the interview, which lasted for one hour, and he was uncomfortable with the question but had no concerns about the interview. Maybe curiosity got the better of her.

We are specifically asked to address how the student will take advantage of the open curriculum in our report. So yes, my guess is that most interviewers either directly mention it or ask followup questions if the student does. I may not specifically ask about the open curriculum, but I ask a lot of questions about interest in interdisciplinary work and other aspects of the open curriculum.

And yes, we are not supposed to ask where else you applied, and if the interviewer mentions your other schools in the report, admissions will ignore that information.

Wow that was so helpful, thank you. Iā€™m a Sophomore in High School; this is definitely very insightful!

Iā€™m not sure how a student can apply to Brown without knowing about the open curriculum. It is THE thing the Brown is known for.

Side note: Has it finally reached the point where no one calls it ā€œThe New Curriculumā€ anymore? I was there in 2005-2009 which is ~35 years after it was instituted and it was still being called ā€œThe New Curriculum.ā€ I guess 40ish is when it finally stops being new?

@iwannabe_Brown: I havenā€™t heard it called the New Curriculum except by people who have been around for quite a while. I think itā€™s generally ā€œOpen Curriculumā€ on campus at this point.

I really try to not call it the New Curriculum because itā€™s not new anymore. Open Curriculum is much more descriptive. Iā€™ve been weaning myself from New Curriculum for at least 10 years.

So I guess 40 years is the breaking point. Looks like Gregorian quad A-D have another 14 years left as ā€œNew Dorm A-Dā€

Oh god, I hope New Dorm is always New Dorm.

But what happens when they build another new dorm? Will it be the New New Dorm? (Iā€™ve been calling it Gregorian for awhile, but since Iā€™m not a student, what do I know?)

Newer Dorm

Then when the next dorm is built they can call that one Newest Dorm

Just had my Alumni Interview. The interviewer was really engaging and nice person as well. Thanks for this thread @fireandrain!

Has something changed since 2009? The instructions about interviews on the Brown website said, i.e. ā€œDonā€™t call us, weā€™ll call you.ā€ Nobody called; no interview. A recent post said some people get interviews and some donā€™t, based on luck of the draw and not on an early quality-of-application assessment. Yet fireandrain suggests that my daughter should have contacted Brown in February when no interview was offered. Whatā€™s the real situation?

Nothing has changed since 2009. For the vast majority of students, they are contacted first by an alum. If a student hasnā€™t heard by early February they can call admissions and tell them they werenā€™t contacted.

Can you link to the post that says itā€™s luck of the draw? Brownā€™s goal is to interview everyone. There is no quality filter. Some students have the very bad luck to be assigned to a crappy alum. That unfortunately happened in my area this year. The alum indicated s/he had contacted the students and was setting up interviews. Turns out they didnā€™t, and by the time it was figured out it was too late. Had the student contacted admissions, another alum would have been assigned.

I bet whoever wrote it just means itā€™s luck of the draw in the sense that whether or not you get an interview means nothing with regard to your chances of acceptance.

So Iā€™ve been admitted to Brown, and itā€™s awesome. I have a state math competition on the 18th though, and I want to go to the day on college hill program which runs from the 18th-20th. I think Brown will allow me to be there for just the second 2 days, but should I skip the testing competition to get the full experience? I understand itā€™s difficult to provide any ā€œstrongā€ advice with this description, but Iā€™m just looking for some quick thoughts. Thanks

Of course Brown will let you skip day 1.

Whether you should depends on how much you value the competition. If it were me and this is a competition I entered into voluntarily I would probably want to still do it. ADOCH is frankly overrated and youā€™d probably get a much better feel for Brown and ā€œthe Brown experienceā€ by spending a couple days with a student outside of ADOCH.

Just adding my own interview experience here: I was contacted about an interview date with many time slots open (I assume itā€™s a large event with many interviewers and interviewees), but I will be out of state on that date. I emailed them back saying that I cannot make it, and the coordinator said that she will contact an alum to contact me. I was never contacted again and I did not contact them again either (thinking back, I really should have), but was accepted at the end.