Brown or not?

My senior kid has Brown on her list. She told me one of her classmates has been accepted by Brown as an athletic recruit. Based on past years’ record, Brown only accepts one student from her school. Now my question is: should my kid still apply to Brown knowing her chance of getting in is very slim? She has finished all her essays for Brown. Should i suggest to her to switch to another school to replace Brown? Thanks in advance for your perspective!

Below are some stats: SAT 1540; SAT math II 800 (only took one before COVID); GPA: top 20% of rigorous college prep. private high school; Many leadership roles at school including president of debate team/debate club, swim team captain, premed club president, Peer tutoring club president, nationally ranked debater, attended Yale young global scholar summer camp

If the essay is done, she might as well apply. You never know!

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There’s nothing stopping your kid from being accepted as well if the school wants her to be admitted. Brown might have only found one kid every year to be a good fit at the school—that doesn’t mean that your daughter isn’t. Admissions just doesn’t want to have too many students from a particular school or city, apart from their feeder schools (which have high % of legacies etc.)

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Thank you GoldPenn! That’s a good point. I was wondering if she should add a school to her list. Based on her stats, what would be her chances of getting into Brown or a school of similar caliber? Thanks again!

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Thanks for your perspective. I certainly hope Brown will still give her serious consideration. Her high school is relatively small with less than 100 students in this graduating class. it is hard to see Brown will accept more than 1 or 2 kids.

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I would not worry at all about whether Brown, or any other highly ranked university, would accept two students from the same high school. Admissions at any university at this level involves competing with tens of thousands of very highly qualified applicants. One more is not going to make any significant difference to your chances. If they get two applicants from the same high school who stand out to them, they may very well accept two students. For most high schools, they will accept zero in any particular year.

At this level you cannot worry about the competition. Just be as strong an applicant as you can be, and make sure that you also apply to at least two affordable safeties.

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Thank you @DadTwoGirls for sharing your perspective!

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Again, Brown’s looking for a diverse class overall, not from any specific school. For example, both another student and I admitted to Brown from my school applied as pre-med.

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Thank you @PikachuRocks15 for sharing your experience. That’s great to hear. My kid is interested in Public Health and may also be pre-med. We will hope for the best and be prepared with a couple of safeties and two target schools as well.

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