Thank you. Binghamton is on my list and I will apply.
I appreciate the feedback. The other schools you mentioned are just too far for what my parents are comfortable with.
How well is your school known? Does it have a history of sending kids every year to the Ivies and/or to Brown? How many every year? This is a highly underrated factor. (for eg: our school never sends kids to a couple of the Ivies, but does so consistently to the rest)
Your stats are fantastic, LGBTQ is going to be a massive assist…good idea to focus your essay on that but also have enough EC activism around it (u still have a few months to strengthen that part).
Don’t fall in love with Brown, individual school decisions are highly unpredictable. But: If the answer to the school question is positive, you are extremely likely to get in to one of the Ivies. Good luck!
No, we don’t send kids there every year. I think that the last admit was 2020. We do send to others, but not brown so much.
I have widened my net since February. My list now includes Brown, Princeton, Cornell, Penn, Brandeis, northeastern, and Stony Brook. Hoping to visit union for a safety.
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Strongly recommend adding Yale to your list. Great school and fit.
Just noticed “we’re” vs “were”. I mention it not out of random pickiness – I’ve “it’s” when I should have “its” plenty of times – but to make sure that you (or any other applicant listening in) are very picky when it comes to reviewing whatever prose you submit. As the AO at a very selctive college goes about sorting through a mountian of highly-qualified applicants, you don’t want any unintended things to temper whatever excitement they may have developed for what’s in your folder.
You’d probably like Grinnell a lot.
Thank you, I typed this originally on my cell phone, and was autocorrected. Normally I would proofread everything.
Hi, thank you. That is too far for my parents.
Thank you for this. I have added Tufts to visit the next time we are in Boston. It looks really lovely.
In terms of major, I’m looking at a pre-law track with either criminal justice or psychology as my major and a possible mathematics minor.
Have you considered Amherst? Top school, good aid, same freedom in curriculum as Brown, in consortium with 4 other schools nearby.
We’ve considered it, but I don’t seem to connect with the small LACs. I went to visit Swarthmore and just didn’t vibe with it.
That’s one reason I mentioned Amherst. Different vibe from Swarthmore and in a busy area with 4 other schools. Nearby Northampton is often called “Cambridge with trees.”
A bit down in the weeds at this point, but if you have a side interest in math I would recommend looking into a “complex analysis” course. It’s first-year calculus revisited, this time for imaginary numbers instead of just real numbers. I don’t remember what moved me to take something that off-center from the ususal engineering math, but it ended up being fascinating. Logarithms go from being flat 2D curves to 3D helixes, integration can sometimes be done by differentiating… cool stuff. Part way through one lecture, me and some guy in my row I didn’t know turned to each other and grinned.
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Your GPA and ACT are outstanding. What do you want to study? Is there anything in your ECs that you could bring up to the level of a “spike”? What I found most interesting in your ECs was your work as a peer advocate in legally binding county youth court. Alternate and diversionary justice programs are a hot topic nowadays, for a good reason. If, for example, your interest were law and social work, and humane criminal justice, I would say that something like starting up a peer to peer diversionary disciplinary council in your public school, now and over the summer, to be up and running by September, with the goal of reducing suspensions/expulsions, would be something that would stand out on your early application to Brown, that would lift you above the crowd, that would make an admissions committee take notice of you.
I have no idea of what you want to study, what you want to do. But you’ve got the academic achievement covered. You need something that will make you stand out, make them want you, make them think that they might be getting an applicant who is going to make their mark in this world, in a good way, about whom the country or the world will say, a decade from now, “They went to Brown”. You need something in your ECs that will help them to see that you could be that person.
@NY2023GRAD please don’t add any new EC’s solely to appeal to admissions. This is transparent, especially so late in the game, and could have a negative effect. I would argue that too many are doing this- starting organizations and non-profits- and it actually does not make you stand out in a good way.
You are already an excellent candidate. Brown is quirky in its admissions. I think you would love it there, and love it at some other schools too.
I would continue as you are, and continue to deepen whatever you are doing already. Your EC’s can grow, deepen or expand naturally but only for “authentic” reasons.
Your essay sounds good, if written well. Ability to overcome obstacles is always a plus. I will PM you on this.
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Hi,
Thank you! Yes, I want to study law and do feel that my combined work on the court as well as a peer mentor at my school(we already have what you’re suggesting) is the “spike” to which you’re referring. Only certain students are chosen to be peer mentors and the purpose is to help at risk underclassmen avoid suspension and failure.
Wow, that class sounds amazing. I would love it.