I love Brown, and am hoping to attend. I know that everyone who applies is like me and I’m under no false pretenses that I would get in. Help!
I’m a white, LGBTQ, Jewish junior from Long Island in NY. I go to a public high school with a graduating class of 375.
UW GPA- 99.2
WGPA- we weight AP and DE classes as 1.16 do my wgpa sounds ridiculous at 109.4(based on my mid junior year grades).
Rank-anticipated 1 or 2 per my counselor.
ACT- 36
Awards and honors:
Anticipated NMSF with my selection index of 226
HOBY youth leader finalist
Three honor societies
AMC participant 9-11th.
EC:
Peer advocate in legally binding county youth court.
Religious school student teacher
Executive board member of my school’s gender equality movement.
Sleepaway camp counselor(worked up from camper).
Peer mentor in school for an at risk lower classman.
Audio visual squad-ran lighting board until Covid ended shows.
Religious high school program.
My essay is going to be on the medical struggles I had as a child that we’re not life threatening, but life altering. It will include how going to sleepaway camp allowed me to leave the differences behind creating almost two versions of me. They left me with a tremendous amount of empathy.
My LOR will be good, I already asked two teachers and we have great relationships.
College admissions is a bonkers undertaking, so have a cautious mindset. Your profile is very strong. You are definitely in contention at Brown, which is all you can ask for in this process. However, with the ‘holistic’ nature of admissions, you could get denied at Brown, get waitlisted at a lower ranked university, and then get accepted in to 2 schools ranked higher than Brown. It’s madness. The best advice is to not “fall in love” with any particular school…but I know that is difficult advice to follow. You will definitely go to a great university.
I assume you are applying ED? Obviously that would maximize your chances. Make sure you emphasize in your essays and inteview why Brown is the school you love, and more importantly why Brown should love you (without just stating that).
I agree with the other posters that you are a very strong applicant and stand as good a chance as anyone to be accepted at Brown. The issue is that admission is unlikely for everyone, as most students only apply if they think that have a pretty good shot at being admitted, resulting in thousands of disappointed applicants come spring.
Run the NFC on Brown’s website. Is the number it expects your family to pay affordable for your family? If so, and it is truly your first choice, then I would apply ED at Brown. If it’s not affordable or you want to see other options that you get (acceptance/financially) then I would indicate that it’s your first choice and that if the finances work, you would enroll.
Since acceptance is unlikely for everyone, make sure you develop a balanced list of schools that you will apply to. There should be schools where you are extremely likely of being admitted (90+%), likely (60-90%), possible (25-55%), and then unlikely (less than 25%). You don’t need as many in the unlikely and possible piles, but make sure the schools in your likely and extremely likely buckets are a good fit for you and a place where you would be happy to spend four years. If you need help developing a balanced list, let us know.
–Absolutely apply to Brown and give it your all. You look to be a very competitive applicant.
–That said, IMO nobody can reasonably chance your for a school like Brown which has well under a 10% admission rate. Brown should be considered a reach for any unhooked applicant. There were over 35,000 applicants to Brown last year many of whom were very qualified. Plus we cannot see some of the things that can help differentiate you from others such as essays, LORs etc.
–If you have run the net price calculator and Brown appears affordable AND you are sure Brown is your top choice then consider applying ED to maximize your chance of acceptance.
–I for one don’t like the idea of a “dream school” as I have seen too many people hurt if things don’t happen to work out. I am glad you have a balanced application list.
Congratulations on your many accomplishments thus far and best of luck moving forward.
Unlikely
Brown
Penn
Cornell
Princeton
Northeastern
Would you be happy attending Stony Brook or Union and can your family afford either of those options? I’d be surprised if you didn’t have other options come spring of your senior year, but there have been a lot of surprises the last two years in college admissions. If you’re happy with either of those, there’s no need to add more. But if you wouldn’t be very happy attending those, then I would consider adding schools in those buckets.
I would think you have as good of a chance as anyone, which isn’t great but you are well-qualified academically with interesting ECs.
My two suggestions would be to first to think about how you can convey impact in your extracurriculars. The second suggestion is to take some time to think a little more deeply about your essay topic. Essays about illnesses and about summer camp experiences are very common. It may be hard for that topic to stand out in a really competitive applicant pool like at Brown. I have no doubt that those experiences were meaningful, but take some time and do some research on effective topics.
Thanks for the essay suggestions. I admit to struggling to figure out a wow topic. I love writing, except when it’s about myself. A friend of the family is helping me brainstorm right now.
It’s ok to not be “wow” in the sense of it being something big and dramatic. Sometimes it’s easier to start with a smaller anecdote and broaden the story to have greater meaning, if that makes sense. If you do a search for “experts” online, there are several who give free advice about the kinds of exercises that might help you to find a topic.
It’s really hard for most kids to write their personal statements, but in some ways that is the point. It forces you to be more introspective and contemplative than you might otherwise have been. It’s not something you need to decide right now. I would try to write it over the summer, but give yourself time to really dig deep about a topic. Once you know you have hit on the right topic, writing it will likely be fairly easy, especially since you and enjoy writing and are good at it.
OP, I think you will get into Stony Brook, Brandies, and Union. You should get into Northeastern based on your stats, but Northeastern is very unpredictable and it’s not uncommon for it to defer high stat students such as yourself. As far as Brown and the other Ivies go, I think you have as good a chance of getting in as any unhooked white/Asian kid from an over-represented geographic region. It’s possible, but I wouldn’t bet my pension on it. Have you thought of applying to some schools that fall between Brandies/Union and the Ivies as far as selectivity goes? I’m thinking along the lines of Tufts, Emory, Michigan, NYU.
Yes Northeastern is very interested in whether or not you will actually matriculate. They sent my DD an email when she applied regular decision, asking her if she was actually interested in coming to NE in February. As it turns out she had just been accepted ED2 to UChicago so she responded with her application withdrawal.
Thank you for the suggestions. I had considered Tufts, but they don’t offer merit assistance. My family can pay for the full tuition, but I don’t want them to do so unless its for Brown or Penn. So, I’m eliminating some of the in between schools that don’t offer Merit.
I respect your reasoning, but nonetheless would encourage you think some more about Tufts in comparison to Brown. I’m in the dark as to what you want to do with college (major, undergrad research opportunities or not, post-grad plans if any), but for a lot of people Tufts would be as good as or even a better full-price choice than Brown: First-class education including great research opportunities; A similar “positive vibe” in the student body; Undergrad focus of the profs; An arguably better location.
Either one is top-heavy with former HS “A students”, so the quality of work expected is going to be comparable… and it tends to be the case that what one gets out of the four years is more about how hard they work than exactly where they do the work.
So Tufts offers challenges (the good kind) and opportunities similar to what would be found at Brown, but with a “very competitive” admit rate rather than a “rediculously competitive” one. Clearly you’ve accomplished a lot so far in your HS career and have great grades to show for it, but your EC’s are below those of many fine Brown applicants I’ve interviewed who weren’t admitted. As you and others have indicated, it’s a long shot for anyone.
OP- you sound like a great candidate for ANY college!
Brown is obviously somewhat hard to predict. Take a look at these colleges if you want to add to your list- places that will be very excited about your stats…
Vanderbilt
Tulane
Emory
I know a lot of kids who loved Brown who ended up loving McGill and Rochester. And if you want something further from home which is a true safety- why not add Binghamton?