Hello,
I am a Brown Alum, and my father also attended Brown. My daughter applied RD this year. Her stats are good enough, but not outstanding or extraordinary. She is an accomplished musician, but we had trouble promoting that in the common app process so I worry it will not have the weight it should. She rec’d an alumni interview, which I think is standard (PLMK?) I rec’d a letter last month, quite generic, that had a number of statistics about Brown Admissions. There was nothing personal about the letter. I am wondering why it was sent. Is this a negative “let you down easy” letter to an Alum parent to show how competitive the school is, or is this letter sent out to parents of all applicants, or to all alum applicants? Or, wildest hopes, was this letter sent out because she has been noticed by admissions committee? Can anyone shed light on this? Thank you in advance.
I wouldn’t read too much into it. Sounds like its the letter everyone gets. You don’t know what is going on behind closed doors. All you can do is hope she will get the alumni bounce which is more than non-legacy kids get.
Princeton sends out a letter like this too to alumni parents whose children apply. Don’t read anything into it.
Pretty sure it gets sent to all alumni parents
Many schools send out these letters to alums who have kids applying to the alma mater. Basically it’s just alumni relations and management of expectations by reminding parents how extremely competitive admissions has become, even for legacies. These schools send the same letter to all legacy applicants. You weren’t being singled out.
Thank you for your replies. I agree it probably is just a standard formality.
Yup, it’s a letter sent to alumni whose children applied. Got it for each of my sons. I think it’s to manage expectations.
Mhop72 just an FYI we have a friend that is a Brown Alum, and her daughter was a just above average student and she got in (3 years ago). Now that “above average” statement came from her, and she has very high expectations of her kids so maybe her above average is still high ?
Either case she didn’t think she would get in and she is thriving there.
I am also that person that does believe that alum kids should have a really good look. The bottom line is they get the endowments from a lot of the alum. Without them they can’t give free education to those that can’t afford them.
That is just the facts.
For the record…I’m a graduate of a state school so this isn’t about my child.