Official "we don't have a chance" thread but we still love Brown!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
81

<p>yeah, obama went to oxy and transferred to columbia. </p>

<p>sure, sats are important, but they're not the end all. class rank/gpa is certainly more important to brown than sats, and while they may have very high averages, it's because they have a highly talented applicant pool to choose from.</p>

<p>the reporting for the sat averages is only for the ridiculous purpose of college ranking. sats, at least in my experience with the 10 or so kids my school has sent to brown in the past 4 years, are not very important. while they are a component of your application, i've been told they're weighted even less than the interview.</p>

<p>just my .2¢</p>

82

<p>im so glad i started this thread! And yes we shouldnt argue I just wish for the best! Honestly, it all doesnt matter in the end, when we look back and we're out of school, what only matters is thatl we're happy for the next four years! Hopefully at Brown! :)</p>

83

<p>Can someone get into Brown if they have a D in their transcript? Or do they look at it and say, "auto reject"?</p>

84

<p>tlowell: Yes I have heard that Brown doesnt really care about the SATS. </p>

<p>However, I find it too hard to believe. Its 25% -75% is just like every other ivy. Very HIGH Sats in my opinion, So i think SATS do matter. I have not seen someone get into Brown with a 1500 combined and with no hooks (i.e. minority or athlete or 1st generation).</p>

<p>Brown is unique but just look at almost every accepted person to Brown. HIGH SATS.... </p>

<p>my .02 dollars.(haha not cents tlowell :P) lol.)</p>

85

<p>robberto someone can get into brown with a D. If someoen has a 2400 sat and 1600 subject tests and in 30 clubs and president of them all. Hahaha.</p>

<p>Just kidding. Can you be more specific about those circumstances, is it in an ap class, were you sick, tough times? I would explain it and send it to brown.</p>

<p>Plently peole have gotten in with worse. thats for true. :)</p>

86

<p>^</p>

<p>Yep, it was AP Physics C. It was a hard class, I'd never taken an ounce of physics before, the teacher was terrible, and above all, I just suck at physics. There's no way for me to explain that in a letter, though, because "I'm dumb" doesn't come across as a convincing reason.</p>

<p>Can you elaborate on the people who have gotten in with worse grades? Can great ECs make up for it?</p>

87

<p>I'm pretty sure a D will hurt you, but definitely but won't kill you. </p>

<p>I talked to a person on CC who got in ED with some C's and even a D.</p>

88

<p>yes roberto your ecs can make up for it. ap physics C would be acceptable.</p>

<p>You can explain it, you just did to me. :P</p>

<p>If you have never taken physics before (it goes physics honors, ap physics B, and then ap physics C) and get a D its very understandable. Why would any school expect you to get a "A" in a class that you skipped 2 years of!! </p>

<p>Write a formal letter and fax it(mail is too slow, fax get their same day and may be mentioned in your brown account sooner) and say you decided to take a challenging class
without any pre requisites and ended up getting a passing grade. Brown will see it is a student challenging themselves and doing worse then taking the easy way out.
Explain it right away to Brown, trust me they will understand.</p>

<p>if student a takes honor and gets an "A" and student B takes ap and gets a "b" student B is better because he challenged himself.</p>

<p>Explain it dude. and hurry up send it in monday they are reviewing apps. And send it to me before you send it, don't make it sound to informal. I will help you write it if you want. :)</p>

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<p>^^^ thank-you tlowell91..I completly agree, NOW DO YOU GUYS SEE WHY I AM WORRIED ABOUT AN AMAZING SCHOOL LIKE BROWN? lol</p>

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<p>Thanks, GanDhIizRiPpiN, but I'm not sure writing a letter is the best idea. "Physics was too hard for me waa waa" just sounds like such a pathetic excuse. :) Hopefully they'll take a look at my transcript and have a laugh about the loser who went into AP Physics without a clue of physics....</p>

91

<p>^haha roberto, ok I am pretty sure they will figure it out themselves anyway. gl with brown.</p>

92

<p>superwoman - haha wow i'm glad you like it most people ask "what's that suppose to mean" where I continue to ramble on about how its CONFUSED spelled minus the vowels =] I applied to cornell (if you head over to that thread you will find my overdramatic statement on how I'm not getting in there either) NYU, Boston Uni, St. Johns Uni, UTAustin, and the usual around Texas. Where else did you apply? I don't know how CC works apparently you can msg me somewhere?! lol that way we can be on our way to becoming best friends! :) Good luck to you as well, all the best</p>

<p>wow loving the thread but my goodness it sure became a bully...?</p>

93

<p>yea, i definetly agree with wanting to be a brownie! Ive seen Cornell before, its gorgeous! But freezing!! i hate the cold..i want warmer weather bc im sick and tired of this new england weather! i applied to BU too! Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Amherst, UMASS Amherst, BC, Northeastern, Holy Cross, Emmanuel College, Spelman, Florida A&M
I hate that the thread turned into a bully session sorry to the victim :(</p>

94

<p>Ugh I really do not think I have a chance... I applied to the Brown/RISD Dual Degree program. Super long shot.</p>

<p>Location: Central NJ
School: Fresh/Soph I went to a really competitive private school, Junior/Senior I went to a really competitive, nationally recognized public school.
GPA: I have a 92 average for all 4 years, & it has much improved since junior year started.
Percentile: No idea my school doesn't do that I don't think. But there are SO many competitive and really overachieving people in my school so I would in no way be in the top 10.
SAT: 760 Writing 740 CW 690 Math (yeahhh I'm not the best at math)
SAT II: 730 Spanish 660 Biology (should have studied at least somewhat for that one..)
AP/Honors: AP Spanish as a junior (skipped spanish 5 H), AP Art History (this is relevant here, not fluff... I am intending to be an art history minor at least), AP Studio Art (same deal), AP English 12, AP US History, Honors Physics, Honors Chemistry, Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra II, Honors English 11
my freshman/sophomore years my school didn't offer many honors/AP but I took as many as possible
Ethnicity: white. awesome.
ECs: Art art and more art. Two Pre-college programs for art at RISD and Pratt and weekend art classes at Tyler School of Art. I also am receiving my Gold Award in Girl Scouts for running a free art workshop open to the community. I did Model Congress/UN at my first school, in addition to varsity cross country. I was also in the Young Democrats club and comedy club. In my new school, I played varsity lacrosse and was inducted to the National Art Honors Society. In addition to this stuff, I spent one summer in Costa Rica doing community service and a homestay. I also did a homestay in Peru. I'm also a National Merit Commended Scholar, if that even means anything at all. I kinda forget all the stuff I put on my app but I know I've done over 100 hours of community service for various places, including animal shelters, nursing homes, cleaning up beaches, etc.</p>

<p>In terms of other stuff... my essay I felt really explained me as a person. It doesn't "stand out" in terms of it being some really unique topic or something, but in my acceptance letter from another school, the admissions rep said it was very "heartfelt" and "passionate" which was my goal (I wrote about my first real experience with art & drawing at RISD, again to emphasize my interest in art and explain how that experience helped me open up and become less afraid of being myself).The other short answer things I answered very honestly and in the same passionate manner. My RISD/Brown Dual Degree Essay was outstanding in my opinion... really heartfelt and written well. I had a really great interview with a Brown alum who said I would "fit perfectly". </p>

<p>I also sent a separate letter to Brown explaining that I felt very insignificant in the cold, stiff application process and I explained my personal character/passion in a little bit further detail, stressing that I did not base my value as a person simply on test scores or homework assignments from a certain class, but rather in the discussions I hold in all my classes. I described how involved I am in class and how much I participate, really trying to show the fact that I am genuinely interested in learning instead of doing things simply to get into college. BUT I don't know if anyone will even read that letter. Sigh.</p>

<p>I didn't talk too much about my Gold Award project though on my app since at the time, it was in its infancy and my school board had to approve the use of the school for the workshop... I'm wondering if I should send something stating what I'm doing with that project, or if it'll even matter. Not too many people stay with Girl Scouts so I think this might give me at least a little bit of an advantage?</p>

95

<p>I also did my Girl Scout Gold Award, but barely mentioned it on my app.</p>

<p>I wonder how many people who applied to Brown did this though because I know not that many girls choose to do it.</p>

96

<p>Cherrycrush, I'm not sure why you're saying you're a 'super long shot.' Your stats look fine . Okay, not supergenius, but you're applying to both Brown and RISD. Really, for RISD, it'll depend a lot on your portfolio and home test. As for Brown, well, Brown is into individuals; sometimes if your essay stands out, or something about you stands out, you can get in. But if you don't get in, you don't get in. Trust me,in pretty much any college there is an opportunity for greatness and growth. It depends on you more than anything else. I've known so many people who have gone to mediocre colleges and then gotten a Rhodes or gone on to be a well known writer, or whatever. And people who go to Ivies and that ends up being the high point of their life. Maybe it's because you're in these super-competitive high schools (Princeton?), but believe me, life out there is more than suck-ups who run around doing everything possible, busily busily crossing their t's and dotting their i's, just so that they can get into The BEst colleges, and then get the Highest Paying Job, and then get the Biggest House and then....What?</p>

97

<p>so superwoman guessing by your applications and other stuff - you live in the new england states! :o haha see how i did that picked up on context clues there...totally belong to brown right?! ....erm yea right... :/ But I AM brown haha that's the sad part. </p>

<p>Cherrycrush- my counselor said brown was a SUPER LONG SHOT for me...so I definitely don't think its a longshot of any sort for you.</p>

98

<p>Thanks for the encouragement, I guess. It's a super long shot because the Brown/RISD program accepts tops 20 people. As in, you seriously have to be an AMAZING award-winning artist in addition to a super-genius and community service maniac.
I don't know... my main concerns lie with my GPA. I'm an A- student, that was always good enough for me so I figured it was good enough for everyone else. I'm super laid-back and I don't like getting caught up in all the competitive BS in high school. I'm a good student and intelligent and all that, but I hate busy work. I guess I put off a lot of stupid assignments in high school which ended up hurting my GPA. Tests I did well on, and research papers I excelled at. But stupid, pointless homework assignments and the like... not so much. I chose to draw/take pictures instead with my free time. I guess I've been pretty frustrated with high school because I find a lot of it pointless. Things I'm really interested in, though... well that's different. I pour my heart into that. Which is why I'm looking forward to college; especially at a school like Brown where YOU choose what you take and what you don't, I really feel like that would be really beneficial for someone like me who just needs to be excited about something. </p>

<p>Anyway, enough rambling. If not Brown, I'm REALLY hoping for the Tufts/SMFA Dual Degree. A lot of you look like great candidates with really interesting ECs and such. In all honesty I wish I had done more interesting ECs rather than waste my time with lacrosse since my team is terrible. I wish you all the best of luck. Even if you don't get into Brown, you all are probably going to do really interesting things with your lives.</p>

99

<p>We all do! I truly think so..here we are gushing our brains out about a school that's probably reading our applications as we speak. Within a minute another application will be stuffed in their face (lol). what a life! I just don't know how they do it all..good luck to them! Good luck to us who are patiently waiting, DYING to know! And yea, you hit it right on the spot. I'm from Beantown babay! (Boston)</p>

<p>cherrycrush021- don't worry about it! Like you said, you do have other options :) . I think your stats are pretty good, they're not super ridiculous! My guidance counselor told me I shouldn't even apply, he told me as soon as they saw my test scores my application would be thrown out..who knows? We'll find out in 34 days! :)</p>

100

<p>hahaha i like how cherrycrush comes in here with the same sats scores as me, and no one says anything to her hahahaha, wheres GhandiIsRippin?(probably will come in here and start calling people names and talking **** any minute now.....)</p>