Chance Me - Current Junior for Literary Arts at Brown

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics
From the US, white female, highly competitive private arts boarding school, first gen

Intended Major(s)
Literary Arts and English

Grades/Ranking
School doesn’t rank or weight
3.85 UW (hoping to boost a little bit by end of semester), ~4.5 W
Hoping to apply test optional

Coursework
AP Bio self study Freshman year
AP Psych online Sophomore year
AP Stats and Dual Enrollment Chem Junior year
Dual Enrollment History and English Senior year
(school only offers four dual enrollment courses, not planning to take bio because I took AP, school offers AP calc but didn’t take bc scheduling)
Potentially self studying AP Environmental Sci senior year
All other classes are honors
At least creative three creative writing courses per semester every year of high school

Awards
40+ Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards over the past four years
Regional American Voices Nominee two years in a row
National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Best in Grade and Gold Medal
YoungArts Honorable Mention (hoping to be a finalist next year)
Local Playwriting Festival Award
Statewide Poetry Contest
College Poetry Contest
School wide spirit and community building award
School wide grant for studying public health and sciences in the summer
School wide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Inclusive Initiative Award
Writing Workshop Full Ride Merit Scholarship
30+ Publications in Literary Magazines and journals

Extracurriculars
Editor in Chief of school literary journal
Founder and editor in chief of my own literary journal
Journal Editorial and Outreach Fellowship
Editorial work on several other online literary journals
Writers Volunteer (providing feedback at little to no cost for writers)
Subs Auditor (assisting audit and develop database of literary journals to be more accessible for all artists)
Writing Building Coordinator and Assistance (planned and coordinated all events for students in the writing major on our school’s campus)
Residence Life Assistant
School Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Student Voice Team Disability Accessibility Student Leader
Founder and Leader of school’s disability affinity group
Youth in Government Press Editor in Chief
Civic Engagement for the Arts Coalition Executive Board Member
Local Mutual Aid Network social media management
Volunteering with local branch of Food Not Bombs
Volunteering with program dedicated to bringing the literary arts and writing to local prisons, assisted with program’s literary journal

Summer Work/Programs
Work in local park, doing janitorial work, catering, and in maintenance
Iowa Young Writers Studio
Kenyon Young Writers Studio
Adroit Mentorship Program
Ellipsis Young Writers Workshop
Brown Pre-College
(all of the above programs with full ride scholarships)

Essays/LORs/Other
Common app on resilience and personal fear of insects as well as self isolation - 8.5
LOR from writing teacher who is also a Brown alum - 10
LOR from AP stats teacher who said she would write a million LORs for me if she could - 9
Potential LOR from Brown Pre-College teacher
Potential LOR from Editor in Chief of Adroit Journal and founder of Ellipsis Writing

Applying for scholarship and financial aid at all schools

Schools
Brown ED
Princeton RD
UPenn RD
Columbia RD

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The schools you’ve listed do not provide merit scholarships. They do provide aid based on financial need, and they determine what your family can pay. What is your budget? Did you run the Net Price Calculator at these schools? And they are reaches for everybody.

You need to find appropriate safety, target, and match schools. It sounds like you are a very accomplished writer and there are a lot of schools with great programs for this.

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The list I included on this post isn’t my full one, just the school’s I’m hoping to be chanced for. I qualify for need based tuition coverage at all of these schools with my mom making about 32000 a year.

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Ah, I see. While no one here can really chance you for these schools, you may get more input if you provide more information: class rank(approximate if you can), test scores, level of course rigor(level of math, science, foreign language,etc.).

But basically everyone will tell you they are all reach schools with single digit acceptance rates. ED at Brown may give you a slightly better chance.

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You appear to be a competitive candidate. Congratulations on all that you have achieved.

All single digit acceptance schools are highly unpredictable and Brown is particularly idiosyncratic. With that said no one can give you an accurate assessment because most estimates suggest 2/3 of candidates at schools such as Brown tick all the academic credential boxes.

The best advice I can offer is make sure your application is authentic, passionate and displays a consistent narrative that highlights what you uniquely could bring to the Brown community and what Brown will uniquely provide to help you achieve both your academic and life goals.

I know this sounds daunting but I literally know dozens of recent unhooked Brown grads and almost all had great credentials and something else that made them stand out. Go into this process knowing that it is not what makes your application look like it belongs (great grades, test scores, rigor, etc) but what makes it stand out amongst those that are qualified.

Most informed advice will come from your GC who will have the necessary context.

Good luck!

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Based on the creative orientation of Brown’s Literary Arts concentration, this article may be of interest as you develop your greater college list:

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Not sure of your parental situation - ie is there a dad - but you might look at questbridge as a way to enhance your admission opportunities at these schools and more. It changes if there’s more income. Many will count the second parent even if not contributing.

You are obviously very accomplished.

Don’t self study AP. Take the class or let it go.

Do go to your private boarding school counselor. They will likely have a better idea of where a student like yourself gets in than anyone here.

Good luck.

https://www.questbridge.org/

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If you have taken 3 writing classes/semester, have you been able to also take the other 4 cores (math, foreign language, social studies and science) all four years?

For your reach schools, it will be very important that you can show aptitude in all core subject areas, not only English-related ones.

As others have said, your school’s college counselor will give you the best idea of your chances. Especially at a private boarding school, he or she will understand the specifics of how your application compares to others from your school, how it compares to others who have been accepted from your high school, how your personal story will be meaningful to AOs, the relationship between your high school and a given college, etc. Even if you provided us with all of that personal and specific information, no one here will know better than your high school counselor.

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