Chance me for Brown, please! Any help or insight will be GREATLY appreciated!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
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<p>Hey everyone! So I am brand new to this forum and I joined to ask one question that is pretty much the center of my life right now. Can I get into Brown University? I have done countless hours of research about Brown and I plan on visiting it in a few weeks. It is my number 1 college by a LONG shot. Here’s my academic, extracurricular, leadership, etc. </p>

<p>I live in Robbinsville, NJ and go to Robbinsville High School where I will be a senior this year. The school is public, but it is one of the best in the area and is small and new enough to be highly flexible to my academic wants. I am an eastern-Indian girl. I was born in India, but I was raised in America my whole life and I’m an American citizen now. </p>

<p>My grades, AP scores are overall really good. Here’s a brief overview.</p>

<p>FRESHMAN
Honors English: A
Honors History: A
Honors Pre-Calculus: A+
Honors Physics: A+
Gym: A
Spanish: A
Electives (Public Speaking, Theatre 1, Into to Business, Baking): A+</p>

<p>SOPHOMORE
Honors English: A-
AP Calculus A/B: A
AP Physics: A
Honors Chemistry: A+
Spanish: A
Gym: A
Forensic Science: A+
Honors History: A</p>

<p>JUNIOR
AP Chemistry: A+
AP Calculus B/C: A
Honors History: A+
Honors Spanish: A
Honors Biology: A+
English: A+
Gym: A
Electives (Digital Design, Psychology): A-</p>

<p>SENIOR SCHEDULE:
AP Statistics
AP Computer Science
AP Biology
AP Spanish
Honors Anatomy
Honors English
Gym</p>

<p>TEST SCORES/GPA
AP Chemistry: 4
AP Physics: 3 (I had a horrible teacher, nobody got higher than a 3)
AP Calculus A/B: 4
AP Calculus B/C: 4
SATs: 2290 (800 Math, 780 Critical Reading, 710 Writing
SAT IIs: Math Level 1: 800; Math Level 2: 800; Chemistry: 740-- Taking Biology and possibly Spanish this year.
Unweighed GPA: 3.98 (from the A-s), Weighed: 4.47; By the end of Senior year, if I have straight As, I could have a 4.63 weighed GPA
Class Rank: Top 1%… Either 1, 2, or 3 in my class</p>

<p>Extra-curriculars:
Robotics Club: Programmer (Soph-Senior)
Model UN/ Model Congress Club: (Soph-Senior) Going to be VP this year
Spanish Honors Society: (Junior-Senior)
Literary Magazine: (Junior-Senior)
Brown Belt in Taekwondo
Math Club: (Junior-Senior)
Science Olympiad: (Junior-Senior)
Future Medical Leaders of America: (Senior) New club, founding member.
Future Business Leaders of America: (Freshman)</p>

<p>VOLUNTEERING/JOBS:
Princeton Hospital Volunteer (3 hr/week for the past 2 years)
Library Volunteer (27 hours total)
Babysitting Jobs
Tutoring Jobs (I actually got paid quite well for teaching physics— $45 an hour)</p>

<p>AWARDS:
State winner of Georgia Oratorical Contest (This was 5th grade when I was living in GA)
Duke TIP Extraordinary Student Award in 7th Grade for getting a 1300/1600 on the SATs
About 11 various certificates of excellence from Elementary and Middle School and 6 more in High School
Top Mathlete EVER from my Middle School
Various TaeKwonDo Trophies
National Merit Scholarship FINALIST</p>

<p>ESSAYS/RECOMMENDATIONS/:
I do not have the BEST essay writing skills, because I am not passionate about writing (I am a lover of math and science). But, I am a fairly passionate and creative writer when I need to be. I am not good with highly formatted essays, but my creative writing skills are good.
I have recommendations from my Honors/AP Bio teacher, my honors/AP Chemistry teacher, my guidance counselor, my AP Calculus B/C teacher, and I am going to get one from my senior year English teacher. All the teachers are VERY good writers and like me a lot. </p>

<p>To set me apart from other high-end candidates, I am the YOUNGEST EVER DIRECTOR of the New Delhi, India division of an international volunteer group called Dr. Interns. Basically, a group of 8-10 US Undergrads pursuing medicine will go to India to see the culture and get a hands on medical experience. The students pay money for this experience and all of that money gets donated to the host NGO organization. I facilitated this by partnering with New Delhi NGOs to organize their 30-day stay. </p>

<p>ANYWAY, I am sorry this is so long. I really, REALLY want to go to Brown in my pursuit of a medical degree. I am SUPER motivated and I really think I have a lot going for me.
The other colleges I am applying to are: Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University, Duke University, Columbia University, Rutgers University, Drexel Univeristy, Dartmouth Univerity, John Hopkins University, Harvard University.</p>

<p>Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. And I thank you for reading all of this post. I really have my heart set on Brown and, as you can see, I am incredibly passionate about getting in.</p>

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<p>you’ll be fineee</p>

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<p>mssrishti–There is absolutely no question that you have a lot going for you, and you WILL make a fantastic doctor. You have worked very hard through middle school and high school, and your grades reflect your dedication.</p>

<p>Re. Brown: I understand your passion, and feel your pain. I’ve been doing alumni interviewing in NJ for 20 years, and I have to tell you it’s mighty tough to get into Brown. Your grades, scores, extracurrics are all excellent, but as we all know, that doesn’t guarantee anything vis-a-vis admission to Brown. They can turn away students with 2400’s and 4.2 (unweighted)—but they’ve been known to admit kids with lower scores and grades because of other factors: unique background, outstanding extracurriculars and/or talents and abilities. </p>

<p>One thing that I know is that they like to see someone show independent thought/ creativity/initiative as well as follow-through. Have you created a major project from start to finish? The Doctor Interns program sounds great, how much responsibility did you have as director? </p>

<p>Out of 20 years, the “best” candidate that I met was not a 4.0; he was a renaissance kid, LOVED the idea of a liberal arts education, wanted to be a teacher. He didn’t get in, but reapplied as a sophomore transfer and asked me for a recommendation. I was happy to write it–he belonged at Brown–and the second time, he WAS accepted. </p>

<p>I’ve also met kids with impressive resumes that were absolute duds in their interviews. I recommend having a sense of humor/spark of personality during your interview. There are many high GPA, multi-extracurric students who share your passion for Brown. You’ll need to stand out, so let your personality shine.</p>

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<p>Thank you Mothek for such a detailed and informative answer.
To answer some of the questions you pose:</p>

<p>I am INSANELY passionate about Brown, even though many have told me that I should be putting more consideration on Princeton/Harvard because my scores put me in a reasonable position for acceptance. People have especially stressed Princeton because I am 25 minutes away from the campus. However, I have my mind set on Brown. I think I’m right for Brown because my personality is EXTREMELY fun loving and very fiery. I am passionate about a lot of things and am very vocal in my extreme left-leaning political views. I feel like Brown really will help me find my own voice and I will benefit immensely from the unique atmosphere of Brown.</p>

<p>The main BIG project I have going on is Dr. Interns. With this organization I am the YOUNGEST director EVER and I had a huge responsibility. As the director, I will single handedly chose the type of experience that the interns from the program will have. I will choose the organization that we choose to work with and I am the main line of communication between Dr.Interns and their ventures in New Delhi. Basically, I have been charged with taking full responsibility for creating the New Delhi chapter which is an amazing task and I am currently speaking to several NGOs in Delhi. On drinterns.org you can see my page that goes into further detail about the organization.</p>

<p>I have heard from many people that my SAT scores, GPA, and extracurriculars put me at a HIGH chance (about 65-70%) for getting into Brown. However, if you have any tips on interviewing, essays, and recommendations I would really appreciate that. </p>

<p>More than anything, I care about the quality of my education. I have little interest in Brown’s obvious prestige. I am in love with Brown’s open curriculum and lively yet intelligent atmosphere. I don’t think there is anywhere I’d rather be. Brown fits my personality and my goals and I really hope my interviewer/application reader will be able to see how much I want this.</p>

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<p>Msrishti, I wish you all the best and will give you as much good advice as I know.</p>

<p>On the Common App part about “more info about one extracurric,” emphasize the Dr Interns project and how immersed you are in it. Your writing is also excellent and will be an asset on your application. Your enthusiasm will surely come through, and should be equally evident in your interview. Re. recommendations: ask teachers who genuinely think you’re something special. Not just because you aced all their tests, but because your intellectual spark shows in their class. Don’t go for the science, AP English or Calculus teacher, necessarily–choose the one(s) who “got” you best, and whose class you enjoyed the most.</p>

<p>Use Brown as your Early college–that is the best way to increase your chance of being accepted. It shows that you are sincerely interested and also puts you in a smaller application pool. Whoever told you that you have a 65-70% chance of getting into Brown has no foundation for saying so. Reasonable, yes, as far as admission to Brown goes–you’re as qualified as the best applicants–but no one has such a high chance. I have heard many times that the Brown admissions office could throw out all the applications from admitted students and still come up with an extraordinary Freshman class. I don’t want you to have a false sense of security–but on the other hand, you are a most assuredly a strong applicant. Applying Early will make your case that much stronger.</p>

<p>PLEASE make sure you are prepared to apply to other schools if you don’t hear what you want in December. There are other liberal schools with brilliant students and excellent pre-med programs, many of which have somewhat flexible academic programs. There are approximately 15 thousand incredible kids out there (top 1-2%)–many end up at Stanford, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Brown, Columbia, Duke–even (gasp!) state schools–and it would be great if each was at his/her first choice, but that’s not always how it goes.</p>

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<p>You didn’t say whether you would be applying to the PLME program, or standard (or PLME with option to be in the standard acceptance pool). As a standard admission applicant, with your expressed passion for Brown, if you are that definite that it is really THE school for you, I would echo mothek’s advice to apply ED. (and if you get in you can relax a little bit!!) The exception to that advice would be if you have high financial aid need and will need to compare college aid packages.</p>

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<p>Just show passion in the supplement and you’ll get in!</p>

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<p>this is the competition for brown? i have no chance haha, good luck with everything im sure you’ll be fine</p>

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<p>High chance of acceptance? Brown’s acceptance rate was 9.3% (according to naviance). The only thing you can do is to make sure you are sincere in your essay and you don’t get rejected based on your academics.</p>

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<p>You have a solid chance, you’re a strong candidate.</p>

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<p>Only apply early if financial aid is not an issue. Because so many recruited athletes and legacies are in the ED pool, the benefits of applying ED are not as great as most think they are.</p>