Chance Me for Brown 2026

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am an NYC high school junior. Please be brutally honest in chancing me for Brown, I will be applying early decision there.

Hook: First Gen (My parents went to college outside of the US), Latina immigrant from Brazil.

I will not be asking for financial aid.

GPA:
My school does it on 100 scale weighted, I have a 98.3, I tried to calculate and got 4.93 unweighted and 4.25 weighted.

SAT:
NYC keeps cancelling SATs so I have not been able to take it yet. I have one scheduled for April. I have been getting 1500/1510 on practice tests and am aiming for at least a 1520/1530 super score

Essays: Obviously haven’t written them yet but I will be getting essay tutoring so I expect them to be bomb.

Classes:
12 AP classes by the end of senior year. Will also have taken Computational Mathematics, Graph theory, Number theory, Linear Algebra, and Multivariable Calculus.
Extracurriculars:

Model UN (vice president right now, very likely I will be president next year) there’s about 200 members. I have one various awards including some international ones.

Student Government, Student Assembly, and Student Leadership (I am the press secretary for my student government and will be running for class president senior year.)

Animal Rights Club (President and Founder)
Have led a lot of school wide initiatives and a city wide protest is in the works for May, expecting around 200+ people

Animal Rights Coalition Non Profit
Nationwide coalition of animal rights club, offering resources, a curriculum, and coalition wide campaigns, website will be out next week and we already have some clubs signed up!

Congressional Campaign Research Intern and Phonebanker (60 hours)

City Council Campaign Intern

Marketing and Communications Intern at a multi-million dollar company

Best Friends Animal Shelter Action Leader and volunteer

IDAUSA volunteer

If you think my chances are not high what do you recommend that I do, especially in terms of extracurriculars?

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2

If either of your parents hold a bachelor’s from ANY country you are not first gen.

3

According to Brown’s website I am! It definitely depends on the school

4

Nobody can chance you. What we can tell you is to figure out a bunch of college’s you are excited about which represent a range of statistical difficulty in terms of admissions so that if you DON’T get into Brown, you’ve got some options you are excited about.

You are a strong candidate- just like thousands of other students who will be applying. Good luck!

5

Where do you see that you would be first gen at Brown? My parents went to university outside the US but I’ve never considered myself first gen, nor have I ever heard that definition before. A bachelor’s degree is a universal certification

6

Brown’s admission rate is about 7% so that’s about as good a guess as anyone here will be able to give you.

7

I think for Brown and other ivies as long as you fit the overall profile it really is just by luck and lottery unless you handcrafted something that changed the world. Good luck though!

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8

You have a chance. As does everyone else. You are a competitive applicant, but this year, I only know one person from my school who got in ED and they all had about your stats and qualifications. Make sure to express yourself fully in your essays and remember it doesn’t define your self-worth if you dno’t get in, the college process is a gamble! You will have many fantastic options.

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9

Brown has a very very lax policy! It won’t let me upload the link but here’s a direct quote from their website:

“The formal definition of a first-generation college student is a student whose parents did not complete a four-year college degree. At Brown, we think of it more as any student who may self-identify as not having prior exposure to or knowledge of navigating higher institutions such as Brown and may need additional resources. For example, if a parent attended a four-year college in a different educational system outside of the United States; if a student has only had close contact to people with minimal college experience; if a student and/or parent feel that they are unfamiliar with college culture at Brown-- these are diverse ways in which students might identify with the first-generation identity.“

But regardless of whether or not I’m first gen, what do you think my chances are?

10

That’s a good point, I will definitely make sure with my guidance counselor before I say anything. Thank you for the advice!

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11

Regardless of whether or not you are first gen, are you in the top 10% of your class? What does your schools naviance look like for brown? At my NYC suburb school, they have never accepted anyone with a score below 1550, because our school has high SAT scores. A lot of this needs to be contextualized for your school. For trying to calculate your gpa, use a tool & give yourself a letter grade for every class you have taken, then let it calculate for you. Essay Tutoring will not make your essays ‘bomb’. Your chances are probably higher than the baseline, because of the URM status, but your extracurriculars are ‘ok’ & brown is a crapshoot for anyone.

12

I am in the top 10%, my school doesn’t do class rank though so I don’t know my exact number. About 6 people get accepted with 150 applicants from my school. They have accepted people with as low as 1340 SAT AND 83 GPA, but that is obviously and anomaly. The mean looks to be about 1500 SAT. Any advice to improve my extracurriculars?

13

In my experience, those low scores on naviance are usually recruited athletes esp if it was ED. Looking at your ECs I see a good social justice/government spike. Can you take that further this year? Maybe start something? I think that would make you a much stronger applicant. Look at your community, definitely concentrate on this sorta-spike you have going on. Maybe reach out to professors at colleges around you for research. As a rising senior you can look into the Monmouth Research program in NJ if you don’t mind a commute. But really here, start a non-profit or something in the lines of social justice/government & that is your best bet IMO. Also, it may not strengthen your application much but if you have a lot of volunteer hours look at the PVSA.

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