A lot of my fellow deferred comrades are upset about being deferred. I have never felt so bad about it. I wrote about being raped in my additional information section, in an extremely heartfelt way. I know I shouldn’t take it personally but it feels personal. I really feel like elite schools are avoiding “flight risk” students, and that really disappoints me. Students who’ve had horrible experiences shouldn’t be punished for being honest.
(I was admitted to a university quite a bit more prestigious than Brown EA (I didn’t submit that information there, and reviewing my apps and comparing, I am 100% sure that this was the reason)
You chose to write about a hard subject. It’s hard to say if it made you come across more negative than heroic, or that you have unresolved issues or if you just weren’t a good fit for Brown and the essay didn’t matter at all. It is always hard to say why someone wasn’t in the top 10% of applicants at one school but a perfect fit at another.
Just move on and enjoy your experience at the other school.
It’s tough to be turned down by a college and it’s also hard to know why…your thoughts are going to your essay and assuming that’s the reason but it could have been 10 other things and none of us will ever know. When 90% of applicants are turned away, there’s really no way to understand why…as others have noted, mourn it and move on.
Not writing about being raped in the additional information section sounds like very good advice. I have read here and other places that admissions officers dread “confessional” essays. What they are looking for are additional factors to use to lobby on your behalf.
So… college applications aren’t really meant as a place to list the details of bad things that have happened in your life. I’m sorry this happened to you. But I’m confused about why you thought including this info would add a tick mark to the column saying “we really want this student on campus”, which is (hopefully) what you are going for in your applications. If it impacted your grades or ECs, you could ask your GC to help communicate it, or give a general description that you were a victim of a violent crime.
All that said, Brown turns down almost everyone who applies. It is possible that this had no bearing on your result.
If you got into a “better school,” what’s the anger at Brown?
“I really feel like elite schools are avoiding “flight risk” students.” Did it portray you as troubled and a risk?
This comment, plus the disappointment focused on revealing the rape, make me wonder what role you think this should play in a review.
Sorry. But the number of disappointed students is high and the important thing for each is to keep moving forward. Not succumb to anger.
If this is a deferral, are you confusing that with rejection?
I am sorry about your disappointment but in a prior post you wrote the following:
“GPA: 3.77 ( I have extenuating circumstances).”
This comment suggests you knew your grades to be a weakness. I previously wrote to you that first and foremost Brown seeks students that can thrive academically. Your GPA just wasn’t what it needed to be.
The rest of your stats and ECs looked average relative to the applicant pool. Impressive in general terms but average relative to those against whom you were competing.
Your extenuating circumstances do provide some context to why you have the lower grades but they don’t excuse them. Having to suffer through a rape trial is very personal this decision was not. Being the victim of a horrible crime doesn’t boost an application or diminish it. Unfortunately I suspect you had a low GPA and that was the basis for the decision, however no one but the AO knows precisely.
I wish you nothing but support as I did in prior posts but don’t confuse admissions denials with victimization. You are more than the crime you suffered through For better and for worse.
Looking at this from just a stats point of view (from your previous posts), you applied to ED to Brown with an ACT of 31 and a downward trend in GPA (from 3.9 in Junior year to 3.77 at time of application). You recognized two area of weakness - your lowish GPA and your year off from school.
Why the downward trend in GPA between junior and senior year?
What year did you take off from school? You mentioned it was because your estranged father got cancer but what did you do during that year? Did you include specifics in your application?
Brown would not have had your most recent ACT score of 34 when making ED decisions. This might make a difference when they re-evaluate your application in the RD round.
12/12/17 – Junior
ACT : Just took 32-34 (Predicted?)
SAT II: Bio 800, French 800, US History, World History, Math 2, Latin haven’t got scores yet
GPA: 3.9 (6 B’s Freshman and Sophomore) ( massive course load 14 classes)
Weighted 4.4 : took a CS class at MIT got an A
Other : took a year off of school, estranged father got cancer.
Weaknesses: year off for family illness, lowish GPA
02/23/18 – Junior
ACT : Just took 31
SAT II: Bio 800, French 800, Math 2
GPA: 3.9
Weighted 4.4
12/20/18 – Senior
ACT: Just took 34
SAT II: Bio E 740, Literature 740
GPA: 3.77
The fact that a different “prestigious” university evaluated your application does not mean that it was your essay that got you denied. MOST people who get into tippy-tops ALSO got turned by other tippy-tops: they really are not homogenous in what they look for in students.
You do NOT “know” for a fact that it was your additional essay that is why you were rejected: your opinion is based on a HS student’s self-review of your applications, not a member of the adcomm that made the decision or feedback to your GC from the school.
Moreover, even if it was the reason, you don’t know if it was because of the topic (unlikely, as it is not an uncommon topic), or because of the essay itself. Your essay may have been heartfelt, but that is not necessarily the first or main evaluative criteria that would be applied.
As you have already been accepted to someplace else that you think of as a better school- congratulations!! Their adcomms obviously felt that you are a good match for their university. This rejection should just be a disappointment, not a broken heart.
As far as acceptances to the tippy top go, it seems to be fairly common for someone who gets into other T10s to get rejected or deferred from Brown, and those accepted to Brown to get rejected from the others. Brown is a bit more quirky, but each of those schools is looking for particular qualities. It isn’t you or your essay.
Adding for context re: my earlier question about the drop in grades from Jr to Sr year
In a previous post, you had mentioned the assault and trial occurred during sophomore year and, due to IGCSE system, your poor exam results at end of that year affected your GPA for both freshman and sophomore year (which is understandable given the trauma).
What occurred, though, between junior and senior year to cause your GPA to drop from 3.9 to 3.77? That might have been a red flag for Brown.
Quite a bit more prestigious than Brown? That’s a bit like an oxymoron.
I’m sorry that happened to you. You will never know why you didn’t get in EA. But for other readers, I will caution that it isn’t just elite schools that want to avoid “flight risks.” Most colleges want to avoid admitting students who might struggle. It is best, IMO, to let the guidance counselor address issues that might have caused problems in a student’s high school record.
One potential problem with telling the school about your trauma is that it runs the risk of seeming like an attempt to elicit sympathy. It’s possible that your “extremely heartfelt” statement about being raped came out the wrong way. Maybe it wasn’t that you told them you were raped, but rather that something in what you said caused them concern about your mental health.
It’s not wrong for students to want AO’s to know something about them that they feel is very important. Students must understand though that they are always taking a risk when they share extremely personal information about themselves. As @intparent said, giving the AO information about a family trauma, mental health issue, anxiety, or why you got poor grades doesn’t necessarily put a tick box in the “we want this kid on campus” column.
“I was admitted to a university quite a bit more prestigious than Brown EA”
I don’t believe that there is a single university/college in that nation that is “quite a bit more prestigious” than Brown. There are a handful of schools that, to some extent, are arguably more prestigious. Of those, Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Stanford are out because you can’t apply there early while also applying ED to Brown. Columbia doesn’t give EA results until March 1st. That leaves what, MIT?
If it’s any consolation to you OP, my son had better stats than you and was deferred by Brown. He has a good friend who has better stats than him - also deferred. My advice to you is to do what my son and his friend have done - put Brown in the rearview mirror and don’t look back. If you really got into a comparable (or better) school EA, this should be easy to do.
– I don’t think writing about your rape is the reason you were not accepted at Brown. As with most top schools there is simply not enough space for many of the well qualified applicants. It comes down to finding a match between what a college is looking for and what you can offer. It is more of an art than a science and the difference between acceptance and rejection/deferral likely can rarely be dissected and distilled down to just one thing.
–Hopefully the top 10 school you got into EA was not SCEA and you did not violate the admission agreement for that college by applying to Brown ED…
–With a top 10 acceptance in your hands it is time to look forward with your life and stop thinking about Brown. You can only attend one college so if you already have one great, affordable acceptance then you are in fantastic shape.