Chances at Brown?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
1

*Pretty long post but if you could read all of it I would be really thankful!

So I’ve taken the SAT three times (1940 - 2050 - 2070) but my super score is 2100

CR: 710
W: 710
M: 680

I will also be taking the ACT April 2016 and have not taken any SAT II’s yet but I plan on taking Math I/II, Biology, and History

The high school I go to is a 2015 Blue Ribbon School (won this award several times in past years as well) that was ranked the #5 top high school in NJ and #47 top high school in the US in 2014. It was ranked #3 in NJ and #31 in the US in 2015. Getting into this school requires a test consisting of math, reading, and essay writing, as well as an interview with the school itself. Around 600-700 students in all four grades in the school, at least a thousand people apply to it each year and only around 150 are chosen.

The school doesn’t give out rankings or class positions of any students to any school.

UW GPA up to 2nd marking period of junior year: 3.366/4 (upward trend)

GPA will probably be the weakest part of my application next year although my counselor said that schools will know that our high school is very rigorous and top-ranked and judge the GPA accordingly.

Another thing our school does is when you apply you have to pick one of several programs they offer (fashion, law & justice, computer science, digital media, etc) and then take classes on it throughout your four years of high school like a college major, the program I chose and got accepted to was computer science.

We also have projects (kind of like electives: microcontrollers, 911 cooking, documentaries, SAT prep, etc) every Wednesday for 1.5 hours where you take a class on your chosen project and do activities focusing on it.

Freshman year schedule:

Algebra 1 Honors (93 average)
English 1 Honors (90 average)
Geometry Honors (85 average)
Intro to Object-Orientated Design (96 average)
Physical Education (99 average)
Physics Honors (89 average - all my marking period grades were A- or A, the final brought it down to 89)
Social Issues (93 average)
Spanish 1 (83 average)
World Cultures Honors (90 average)
Project School Climate (100 average)
Project Microcontrollers (98 average)

  • Our school offers no AP classes for freshmen

Sophomore year schedule:

Chemistry Honors (82 average)
Drivers Ed (93 average)
English II Honors (83 average - you need a 90 minimum in this class to take AP Lang junior year but my english teacher wrote me a recommendation to get into AP Lang since she believed I would be a good match for that class)
Intermediate Programming (94 average)
Math Analysis 1 Honors (basically pre-calc, 79 average)
Networking 1 (92 average)
Physical Education (99 average)
AP Physics 1 (79 average + 1 on the AP Exam)
Spanish II (77 average)
Project Spanish (95 average)
Project Cooking (95 average)

  • The only AP you could take sophomore year was AP Physics 1 if you postponed US History (which I did) and AP Government if you were in the Law & Justice program (I wasn't).
  • Sophomore year was my weakest year ever since I was required to take Spanish II (I can't do well in this class no matter how much I study) and all the time I spent studying for AP Physics 1 which ended up being a waste anyways. This year my GPA dropped to between 3.1 - 3.2 average for the two years and I've been using junior (and hopefully senior) year to bring it back up.

Junior year schedule (current year):

AP Lang (86 average so far)
US History 1 Honors (89 average so far)
AP Environmental Science (90 average so far)
Networking II (96 average so far)
Advanced Programming (97 average so far)
Math Analysis II Honors (88 average so far)
Biology Honors (92 average so far)
Physical Education (100 average so far)
First Aid (98 average)
Project Documentaries (95 average)
Project Documentaries 2 (95 average so far)

Senior year projected schedule:
AP Lit
AP US History
Cloud Computing
*Computer science class that hasn’t been determined yet
AP Calculus AB or AP Statistics
AP Biology
Physical Education
Family Planning
Entrepreneurship (easy boast to GPA) or Spanish III or Art (required to graduate)

  • Senior year we are also required to get an internship so I will be interning as well, on Wednesdays we go to our internships instead of school.

Extra Curriculars:
-JV Bowling (Varsity next year)
-Chemistry Club (10th grade)
-Physics Club (10,11)
-Computer Club (9,10,11)
-Turkish Cultural Center Tutor (6,7,8,9,10)
-Founding Member of Lemon Club (our schools chapter of the ALS Foundation)

Leadership Positions:
-Founder and President of C3 Club (11) - We’ve collected over 1000 books for students in low-income areas so far and over the summer we hope to turn it into a non-profit organization or open a chapter of it in another school.
-Founder of a neighborhood book club (10,11) - Weekly meetings with kids in the neighborhood where we read books together and I help them with their hw and classes
-Founder, Owner, and Editor of a book blog (9,10,11) - Started a book blog back in freshman year where I review books and interact with the book community, over 15,000 pageviews and thousands of followers in total over the blog and social media. I talk regularly with book publishers and get sent copies of books to read and review for them and I have attended multiple book events in three different states as well as BEA 2015.

Volunteering:
-At least 200-300 hours of volunteering already
-Volunteered at two relief foundations (9,10,11)
-Traveled to Haiti as a Relief Volunteer (10)
-Volunteered at local library (10,11)
-Volunteered in several cities in Turkey with a relief foundation

Work Experience:
-Working at Kumon since October 2015 (11) - tutoring and grading
-Possibly going to work at MEK starting in April

Other:
-Accepted to Harvard Summer School for the summer of 2016

Awards:
-Got my essays published in Creative Communications’ essay contests two times
-Lots of awards in middle school but only a couple of minor ones in high school

*My family is Turkish (mom and dad graduated from Turkish universities for mining engineering and chemical engineering and came to America in 1998)
*I speak two languages: English and Turkish although I can read Arabic as well
*Dual citizenship (America and Turkey)
*Religion (Islam)
*Income: Between $60,000 and $95,000 yearly (not sure of exact number)

Recommendations:

  • Guidance Counselor (expecting a really good one, I’ve been constantly talking with him since freshman year and I feel like he has gotten to know me pretty well and has helped me a lot)
  • AP Environmental Science teacher (Bachelors at Swarthmore College and Masters at Columbia University)
  • AP Lang teacher (not sure about what school she went to but she’s been pretty involved in the club I made)

Next Year Goals:

By the time I apply to schools my UW GPA will be up to 3.4-3.5/4, I will hopefully have a higher ACT than my 2100 SAT, get into National Honor Society, possibly turn my school club into a non-profit organization (already working on this with several people who said they can help)/start chapters of it in other schools, and travel to at least one more country for volunteering (South America most likely). Additionally, I have the option of going to Rutgers/NYU and taking a Turkish course there for school credits - as I already know Turkish this would be easy enough to pass but would it add anything to my application?

Thank you so much for reading guys! Please tell me what you think my chances are, things I should improve/focus on, my strengths/weaknesses, etc

2

Test scores are above the 25% but still on the lower end for Brown. Unless your school gives everyone similar grades then GPA will also be quite below Brown’s average. 92% are in the top 10% of their graduating class.

Brown views the following as the most important parts of their app:
Rigor of secondary school record
Class rank
Academic GPA
Standardized test scores
Application Essay
Recommendation(s)

Focusing on the areas they consider most important will be a good way to strengthen your app.
You can view the data on their class here: https://www.brown.edu/about/administration/institutional-research/sites/brown.edu.about.administration.institutional-research/files/uploads/CDS_2014-2015.pdf

3

Do not add the Creative Communications to your application! Anything that you have to pay for is not an award. When you have to buy the publication, it is not an award. Also, do not mention the MS awards. Your test scores are very low especially the 1 in AP Physics. Hope that Brown truly realizes that your school is very challenging. The book ECs are excellent.

4

@bwaygirl1 oh wow, I had no idea about the Creative Communications one. Does Brown see all your test scores or is it possible to not send that AP Physics score?

5

No, you do not have to send the AP Physics score…and do not send it. But, when Admissions sees that you took an AP class and do not self report the score, they definitely wonder. If it was a good score, you would be reporting it.

6

@bwaygirl1 either way that’s better than actually sending it right?

7

You don’t send any of your AP scores to any of the schools you are applying to – you send them once you are accepted and need the score to get credit. Since people take AP classes and don’t take the exam, I think it’s fine to not self-report a score.

I’m going to be honest here and say there is absolutely no way for us to predict admissions in general, and in specific when you say things like “my UW GPA will be up to 3.4-3.5/4, I will hopefully have a higher ACT than my 2100 SAT, get into National Honor Society, possibly turn my school club into a non-profit organization (already working on this with several people who said they can help)/start chapters of it in other schools, and travel to at least one more country for volunteering (South America most likely).” What if none of those happen? It’s one thing to say that you will get higher grades and SAT scores – it’s another to actually do it.

And fyi, volunteering abroad is not an impressive EC. If you are paying to do that just for college admissions, save your money and stay home this summer and volunteer in your local community.

If your school uses Naviance, that’s the best way to figure out how people with your GPA have fared getting into Brown. Your GPA is low for Brown, but only Naviance (i.e., past history) can tell you if students with a lower-than-3.5 unweighted get accepted to Brown – and what their SAT/ACT scores are.

My advice is to focus on your reading/book ECs. Those are very strong. Better to devote more time to them than to be members of all those other assorted clubs.

8

Is that gpa only academic subjects? Brown will probably recalculate without classes like cooking and PE

9

Brown doesn’t recalculate GPA.

10

@fireandrain I didn’t purposely go to Haiti just to put it on my college app, the relief foundation I had been volunteering for for two years at that point offered me a chance to go with them since they were going to Haiti and I said yes since I thought that would be an amazing way to experience another culture and help people who were much worse off than me.

11

@bayramf You say your lower gpa is due to rigor of school, but your test scores don’t support that. Some might even say that you almost getting a B in ap physics with a 1 on the exam would suggest grade inflation. With lack of subject tests and below par sat (by brown standards), there is no evidence for anyone here to see that you are “brown material” and would thrive in that level of challenge. ECs are great though. Good luck!