Chances at Brown/MIT?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
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<p>I’ll be a senior next year, and my two top schools are Brown and MIT. Here’s a list of all my academic info and EC’s. Let me know what you think my acceptance chances are at each school.</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0</p>

<p>Class rank: 1 (out of ~150)</p>

<p>School: Parochial</p>

<p>SAT:
Math: 770
Critical Reading: 730
Writing: 800</p>

<p>I’ll be retaking the SAT in the fall.</p>

<p>SAT II: i’ll be taking it in the fall (probably biology and math ii)</p>

<p>ACT: didn’t take it (is this a bad thing?)</p>

<p>Senior year course load:
Community Service
AP Psychology
AP Calculus
AP Physics
AP American History
AP Chemistry
AP English</p>

<p>Underclassman course load: the only AP class my school offers for underclassmen is Biology (which I took as a sophomore–scored a 4 on the test). Aside from that, I’ve taken all honors.</p>

<p>Summer activities: I’m working with two MIT professors this summer to generate a database of info on Boston’s farmers’ markets that people can access through their PC’s, iphones, etc. The professor said he’s willing to write a recommendation.</p>

<p>Music:
Alto Saxophone:
-played since 4th grade
-private lessons
-play in school band, a youth jazz band (grds 6-12), and a mostly-adult concert band<br>
-auditioned for and accepted to a district music festival for the past six years (but never made it to all-state)</p>

<p>Piano:
-took private lessons for a few months
-taught myself most of what I know; have been playing about four years</p>

<p>Community service: volunteer once a month at my school’s food pantry</p>

<p>Work experience: worked at Papa Gino’s pizza for a couple of months</p>

<p>Sports: varsity cross country for 4 years (never team captain, though)</p>

<p>Boy Scouts: should pass my Eagle Scout Board of Review in October (my project included marking trails, generating a trail map, and installing a welcome kiosk at a local forest); served as SPL,ASPL, patrol leader, chaplain’s aid; no palms</p>

<p>Additional note: a senior from my school was accepted to Brown this year. He had a few less EC’s than I, and his GPA and rank weren’t as good, but his SAT score was about 80 points higher than mine. Also, his mom is a professor at Berklee in Boston. What does this mean for me?</p>

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<p>I think your competitive for Brown but MIT is be a stretch depending on how that summer thing goes. I can’t say you’re nearly a shoo-in for either though.</p>

<p>Why do you have community service under senior year courses? Also, once a month isn’t really anything to be emphasizing on an application unless it’s been life-shattering for you.</p>

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<p>since i go to a parochial school, each year we have to take a religion course. for seniors, the two religion course options are Bioethics or Community Service. I wanted to take Bioethics, but the class was full, so i’ll have to take community service.</p>

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<p>What would make him less qualified at MIT? The Brown’s acceptance rate was lower than MITs this year. Just keep working hard. You seem to be doing great so far. Work hard on your essays. So many people forget that the essays are huge at Brown… Actually, everywhere.</p>

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<p>swim2daend, I say that just because OP seems like more of a “fit” for Brown. MIT seems to be comprised more of the people who have won major competitions/ are geniuses while Brown tends to take more people who are all-around really really great but not necessarily Intel finalists. OP seems like a great applicant, but I don’t see any international awards or advanced multivariable calculus 7 (I know that’s not a real class but you know what I mean) on his resume.</p>

<p>Not that Brown students aren’t extraordinary as well, they just tend to be less “geeky.” I personally would prefer Brown anyway, but that’s just me. Keep in mind this is ALL my two cents; I’m no admissions officer I’m mostly speculating from results right here on CC.</p>

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<p>Acceptance rate doesn’t really mean what you’re trying to make it mean, swim.</p>

<p>I mean, look at Caltech’s application.</p>

<p>The nature of it eliminates a lot of sure rejections, plus it’s a school hardly known for fun, whereas Brown’s essays were fairly straightforward and it’s a trendy school.</p>

<p>So Caltech loses potential applications, Brown gains potential applications, and ultimately it gets lost that getting into Brown doesn’t imply getting into Caltech (or vice versa). </p>

<p>Similar situation with MIT.</p>

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<p>Ya. No I understand. I was just confused because I thought he meant that it was easier to get into Brown than MIT and was just a little confused. I’ve seen people into Harvard, but rejected from Northwestern. Both fantastic schools. I think it was just a miscommunication :)</p>

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<p>OK well I got to Brown and my longtime high school BF goes to MIT. So I know more than quite a bit about both schools, having spent many a weekend MIT and the rest of my time at Brown.</p>

<p>BROWN: A creative personality works here. Someone who has ideas and CREATES something with them. The MIT research looks super cool. Highlight that. You take initiative. You can translate cool thoughts into cool, real things. Demonstrate that you produce. Lots of people apply to Brown showing what they want to do. Show them what you <em>can</em> do. The people who succeed at Brown are the ones who can assume a heck of a lot of responsibility. </p>

<p>MIT: This place is totally different. They only accept the people who can handle it. People don’t get in there “on accident” (though I’m sure most people feel that way when getting in). MIT has a BRUTAL workload. You work all night every weekday. And then, on the weekends, you party your sorry butt off. Or do more work, depending on how good you learned to manage your time in the first few weeks. MIT chooses people who can survive. Show them you can handle a lot of responsibility. But most importantly, you must prove you have the passion and the motivation to keep working when you cannot finish and when you do not understand your work. </p>

<p>I am sure you can succeed at either school, provided you have the initiative (Brown) and the motivation (MIT). You have a great chance at either, because there’s nothing wrong with your application. Nothing is lacking. Scores, grades, extracurriculars, life experience, research, nothing. This is really commendable.</p>

<p>You did the high school work to the highest standards, so now the time has come to size up what you’re interested in, what you’re good at, what makes you happy, and what type of work you want to spend the next four years busy with. </p>

<p>MIT fits me better socially, but my academic interests are better served at Brown. Make sure you really consider what is more important to you, especially if you are lucky enough to have that choice.</p>

<p>ALSO: Apply early to the one you like most. It doesn’t hurt if that’s the school you really want to go to.</p>

<p>If you have any more questions about either school, please ask me.</p>

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<p>Thanks for your thoughts, guys. I feel a lot better now about my chances.</p>

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<p>^ I wouldn’t, if I were you. Unless you truly stand out to the adcom (intel finalist, published author, celebrity, or developmental candidate- I would have included URMs, but even they’re being weeded out, as of late), it’s all up to what the committee is looking for in any given entering class.</p>

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<p>What? I don’t think that’s right…is it?</p>

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<p>Have a look at Brown and it’s peers’ decisions thread for this last year. Of course, they still need to have a diverse class, but I’m under the impression that URMs won’t be getting as much of a boost as they used to.</p>

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<p>However, if a URM applicant were to apply under the binding Early Decision option, I suspect that his/her chances would improve significantly.</p>

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<p>If I remember correctly, URM acceptance rate for Brown was something around 18-20% two years ago, and I believe it should have been ~14-15% this year. Which two or three years ago was the general acceptance rate. And people were still saying back then that Brown’s a reach for pretty much everyone (only real exceptions being those who Brown contacted as a recruit). So… draw your own conclusions.</p>