<p>I’m a junior and clearly Brown’s my first choice ED school. I’ve loved it for the last 3 years and there’s probably nothing outstanding about my student profile.</p>
<p>That being said, how much can showing interest help me?</p>
<p>Is it recommended that I contact members from the Bruin Club, etc so I can talk about it on the supplement essay by being equipped with a lot of good Brown info. Of course, I learned a lot on the tour/info session + website but I figure that this would be a great wealth of knowledge.</p>
<p>Okay. What I’ve heard is that “showing interest” in the normal ways – visiting, doing summer programs, etc. – does not help out with top-tier schools such as Brown. </p>
<p>However, being equipped with so much information is definitely advantageous. You know all of the things that you love about Brown and will be able to articulate them in your essays and interviews. </p>
<p>I did Summer@Brown last summer, and I highly recommend it. Although I doubt it’s a direct advantage (and I haven’t heard back from them), I’m sure that my essays were vastly improved by the fact that I had experienced Brown. (I wish the essay had had a larger character limit, though; I only got to talk about a fraction of the things I loved!) In addition, the summer program was what convinced me that I could truly see myself at Brown and what propelled it to the number one position on my list (when I was determined not to have a top choice, for fear of rejection).</p>
<p>I’m sure Summer@Brown is a wonderful experience and I don’t mean to discourage anyone from doing it. But you should not go only because you think it will help you get into Brown. Because it won’t. Summer@Brown costs a lot of money, the admissions office knows that, and recognizes that kids who can’t afford to pay aren’t going and so don’t give an edge to students who do go. Many students who go to Summer@Brown apply but don’t get accepted to Brown. (I think I once saw a statistic that the acceptance rate of Summer@Brown students is actually lower than the national acceptance rate.) If there is a course you really want to take, and you have the money to spend, then do it. </p>
<p>The best way to show interest in Brown is through your essays. The more research you do, the more Brown people you talk to (current students, professors, alumni, etc.), the more specific you can make your essays, the more you show your interest. It’s important to do this for most schools that you apply to, not just your dream school.</p>
<p>And while showing your interest is important, it’s not the most important factor in admissions.</p>
<p>Agreed with the above posters. Applying ED is the best way to show interest. And DON’T attend Summer@Brown in the hopes of it boosting your application-because they won’t care. I too attending summer@brown and had the time of my life! But I did it for the real chance to see how college is before going to college, not to get into Brown in particular.</p>
<p>thank you soooo much for sharing that link…im actually quite surpised that interest is on par with rigor of schedule especialyl after one of the first posters said the best schools dont care about interest</p>
<p>so through my essays and my interview i really hope to demonstrate that passion…im going to try my best to learn all that i can about the school!</p>
<p>Holy crap! Level of applicant’s interest = Very Important? Yay I think I have a shot at Brown now! My interviewer called me “one of the most promising candidates I have ever seen.” And she’s the head of the alumni board at my province/state! (I talk too much sometimes…)</p>
<p>I think by now, I could easily spend a good 20-30 minutes talking about how much I love Brown, and have that lead to reading A Hope In The Unseen, modestmelody and fireandrain’s post, finding this place, surfing around Providence on Google Earth, doing research on the Urban Studies program for the hell of it, reading the Brown Daily Herald on a daily basis (literally), watching those student review videos on Youtube, reading the RIPTA bus schedule, learning the fact that many of my favorite music acts and TV shows have ties to Brown, listening to WBRU, dreaming of being able to pick tunes to play for it, reading about different classes that sound interesting, that one time in March 2008 that I was able to visit Brown for two hours, and all I did was practically run all the way around the campus, eat a slice at Antonio’s…</p>
<p>I am too obsessed. I hope this list grows exponentially come September when I start on my ED app.</p>
<p>Obstinate-- all of that stuff is well and good. You are not learning anything at all about the school itself, at least from all the info you are posting. Not that this info is not compelling and interesting. The above post, though, is a link to the course catalog. Perhaps that might be of interest to you in that this is the real reason to go to a university. After reading this, you can see if you might be interested in being one of the 25,000+ applicants!</p>
<p>It’s also good to explore academic department websites. </p>
<p>And Obstinate – you should be doing that type of research for other schools too. Your love for Brown is great, but you have a 10% of getting accepted. You really need to find other schools, especially safety schools, to fall in love with. You need to do similar types of research for other schools you are applying to, because if you don’t get in ED, you’ll be writing other applications.</p>
<p>Yeah, I wish I knew more, or could do a tour. </p>
<p>But, I’ve been working on my essays and have talked with a few alumni I’ve met over the years. Basically, the Brown philosophy clicks with me. I don’t really know, not for the prestige or any of that, just…I love learning about certain things. A whole lot. I do it everyday on my own spare time. I’d like to learn about those things. I’d like to learn about other things that have nothing to do with those things. I like to question everything to further my understanding of things. I remember when I was young, I asked my babysitter when my mom was coming, and she said “soon”. Most kids would’ve been content with that, but I spent the entire afternoon pondering the significance of “soon”. Is this some new measurement of time, this soon? Where does it fall in between? Hours and days? Minutes and hours? </p>
<p>I know it’s tough to get into, and I’m looking for other schools, but hey…put 210% in and see what happens. Plenty of time between December 12th and January 1st.</p>
<p>Which brings up another question, how can I, or someone clear across the country without the resources to visit freely, truly demonstrate interest aside from simply applying ED? All I can really talk about is the experiences of discussing the school with students or former students.</p>
<p>I personally feel that Brown is indicating interest as an imprecise term for what they essentially view as fit.</p>
<p>We don’t track who comes for tours or anything like that, and showing interest in a literal sense is very difficult to do in some way that other students cannot. Really, what this is about is demonstrating that you fit at Brown and that you have some unique purpose or drive for your education that will particularly well-suited for Brown and that you have something important to add to our community.</p>
<p>Fit was not an option, but it is something Brown views as central to it’s admissions process-- demonstrated interest is just the closest approximation on the common data sheet being sent to almost every school in the country.</p>