Chances for Brown

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>What do you think my chances are of getting into Brown? It's my number one, but I couldn't apply ED because I still have not been able to visit. Anyway, here are my stats:</p>

<p>Male
Caucasian
Upper Middle Class/Lower Upper Class
Suburb of Chicago
Public school, but extremely good one.</p>

<p>GPA: 4.7 on a 4.0 scale (goes up to 5.0 if you take all honors/AP, like I have)
ACT: 32 with 11 on writing
SAT II: US Hist - 700, Math Level II - 740, Literature - 600</p>

<p>Freshman Year (Class - S1 grade, S2 grade):
Adv Alg Honors - A, B
Honors World Civ - B, A
Honors English - B, A
Honors Bio - A, A
Honors Spanish - A, A</p>

<p>Sophomore Year
Honors Precalc - A, A
AP Euro Hist - B, A
Honors English - A, A
Honors Chem - A, A
Honors Spanish - A,A</p>

<p>Junior Year
AB Calc - B, A
AP US Hist - B, A
Honors English - A, A
Honors Physics - B, C*
Honors Spanish - A, A</p>

<p>*I don't know how much this C will hurt me. I know it's not great, but if you exclude that class, I got straight As second semester. Plus, I've already expressed interest in liberal arts classes, not science classes.</p>

<p>I have finals this week, but if I had to guess, these will be my first semester grades senior year:
AP Stats - B
AP World Hist - A
AP Spanish - A (maybe B, I'm not sure)
AP English - B (maybe A, I'm not sure)</p>

<h2>Note: I excluded elective classes (Film Studies, Drawing, etc.) because they're not included in the academic GPA above (the 4.7)</h2>

<p>Extracurriculars</p>

<p>Newspaper - Co-Editor-In-Chief, Asst. News Editor
Students Taking Action Now: Darfur - Co-Fundraising Director
Interact (Community Service Org)
Diving - I dove up until this year. I was on Varsity for two years.
Tennis - I played up until this year. I was on Varsity last year.</p>

<p>APs - European History - 5
AB Calculus - 5
U.S. History - 4
I'm currently taking 4 AP classes, as listed above (Stats, World Hist., Spanish Lang., and English).
I have never taken a regular academic course.</p>

<p>Awards/Honors:
NHS
Cum Laude
National Merit Scholarship Program – Letter of Commendation (never took the SAT, so couldn't advance anymore)
Academic Honor Roll
AP Scholar Award
Illinois State Scholar
Newspaper awards -
Editor’s Award – Selected by all editors (2006-2007)
Most Bylines (2006-2007)
Best News Writer (2006-2007)
Northern Illinois School Press Association Conference – Blue Ribbon for In-Depth Reporting (2006-2007)
Quill & Scroll (2007)</p>

<p>I also participated in a foreign exchange program, in which a student stayed with me for 10 days during the fall of 2006 and I stayed with him for 10 days during the spring of 2007.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, around 14 people from my class are applying to Brown. I'm not at the top of the heap, but I'm certainly not at the bottom. I do have a connection to the Midwest Director of Admissions, though. My mom and dad have been good friends with her aunt and uncle for a long time. My dad was actually friends with the director's uncle when he was a kid, too.</p>

2

<p>I forgot to mention that my school eliminated class rank, just in case anyone was wondering why it wasn't included.</p>

3

<p>Odds are about a 1 in 4 chance of getting in, which is very good (better than the average of 1 in 6 or 1 in 7).</p>

4

<p>How did you come up with 1/4? Did you use a formula, or is that just your rough estimate, and based on what? </p>

<p>Sorry for so many questions; obviously I'm feeling nervous and edgy about college.</p>

5

<p>good shot. being from the midwest helps a little bit.</p>

6

<p>"Letter of Commendation (never took the SAT, so couldn't advance anymore)"
SAT scores aren't considered until after semifinalists are named, so that's not why.</p>

<p>as for your chances, the grades are good enough, and test scores are about average for brown, but ECs are somewhat lacking. I'd say you've got about a 50% shot of getting in. good luck!</p>

7

<p>It'd be a coin flip for your chances, which is quite good (compared to the 1 in 5 chance that most people have)</p>

8

<p>manders21390, </p>

<p>Assuming Brown has an overall admit rate of 14%, 1-in-7 applicants get in. Given that you are a fairly strong applicant and given that you are from the midwest, I thought your chances increase a bit to say 1-in-4. </p>

<p>I think this is a very useful way to hold it. When I was applying to Dartmouth ED, I told myself I had a 1-in-3 to 1-in-4 chance of getting in. I figured it was simply a luck of the draw. I got lucky, but the odds were against me as they are against you. </p>

<p>Guessing is all anyone can give you on CC. BTW, look at the Brown ED thread on CC and look at last year's RD thread. You can see how you stack up against those who got in and then you can develop your own set of odds. </p>

<p>Best of luck.</p>

9

<p>Thanks for all of the advice!</p>

<p>Just one more question (I hope):
Do you think the fact that 13 other students at my high school are applying to Brown great affects my chances (out of around 800 total students in my class)? Like I said in the original post, in terms of GPA, I'm not at the very top of the 14 total students, but I'm also definitely not at the bottom. With ECs, I'd say that I'm at least average in that pool of 14.</p>

10

<p>manders21390,</p>

<p>It obviously doesn't help that so many are applying from your school. How many have applied and been accepted in past years?</p>

11

<p>According to Naviance:
2002: Applied - 2, Admitted - 0
2003: Applied - 4, Admitted - 0
2004: Applied - 5, Admitted - 1
2005: Applied - 5, Admitted - 0
2006: Applied - 5, Admitted - 0
2007: Applied - 3, Admitted - 0
None have actually gone to Brown from 2002 to 2007.</p>

<p>On the scattergram recording GPA and ACT of all applicants, the two admitted students (I don't know why one's missing in the above info) had 4.64 GPA/30 ACT and 5.0 GPA/34 ACT, making for an average of 4.82 GPA/32 ACT. People all across the board have been rejected, so it seems that GPA and ACT don't determine everything for Brown.</p>

<p>Since so many from my school are applying, do you think my connection to the Midwest Director of Admissions could give me the edge over some of those applicants?</p>

12

<p>manders21390,</p>

<p>Those numbers are disappointing for sure. But I think colleges change their emphasis on high schools from time to time. Your relationship with the Regional Director can't hurt. </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>