Should I apply ED to Brown?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
1

Hello. Brown is definitely my first choice school, but I would rather apply ED elsewhere if my record seems inadequate. Any and all advice is appreciated!

I’m Asian American (Filipino), my AP scores are good (nine passed, six 5’s - HG, WH, Psych, Euro, USH, Cap Sem - National AP Scholar), my Subject Tests are fine (770 Lit and 760 for U.S.), and my UW = 3.81 // W = 4.86. I studied abroad on a fully-funded govt. scholarship for two months in China, pres. of my school’s Chinese Club, founded my school’s Feminist Club, interned at a NPO, and volunteered in my local hospital’s ER, among other activities. I was a finalist for a national award for Children’s Stories and have won state/local awards for writing.

However, I have no hooks (unless you count my dad being a disabled military vet. who’s been unemployed for eight years, I suppose) and my ACT scores are funky (36 R, 35 E, 24 M, 24 S = 30 avg.). Further, while I’ve gotten A’s in most of my classes, I’ve gotten a B in every single math class I’ve ever taken.

My first choice is Brown and I would love to apply ED (majoring in Cog. Sci.), but would reconsider if it seems like a crapshoot. I am thinking about applying to Swarthmore, Vassar, or Wesleyan ED instead. (Side note: I am convinced that I must apply ED to one of my reach/preferred schools because of my ACT score.) Other schools on my list are Reed, Berkeley, Barnard, Bryn Mawr, and Wellesley. I just want to go to a more-or-less prestigious school with quirky, intelligent students in a non-cutthroat environment, preferably in or close to a city.

Please reply whether you would advise me to apply ED or not, and if not, then recommend similar schools / a different course of action, if you can. Thanks in advance for the help.

2

If it’s your clear first choice, I would say go for it. However, if you really want to get into one of your schools ED, I would say go for Vassar.

3

This way of thinking is not accurate.

Just because acceptance rates are higher for ED does not mean that lower caliber students are accepted. It’s not like they dig deeper into the applicant pool for ED. If anything, students accepted ED have higher stats than those accepted RD.

Admissions does NOT look at your file and think, “Great student, love to accept her, oops, look at that ACT score; well, she really wants to go here so we’ll overlook those 24s.” (I’m certain Brown operates that way; it is likely that Vassar, Wesleyan and Swarthmore do too.)

Now, if you are a recruited athlete or the kid of a multi-millionaire, or if you bring something else to the table that Brown REALLY wants, that’s when they will probably overlook an ACT score (as long as they are convinced you can handle the work).

I don’t work for admissions so I can’t give you an evaluation of your chances. Does your school have Naviance? Can you figure out from that how someone with your scores and grades did applying ED to those schools? It looks like Vassar and Wesleyan have the highest ED acceptance rate of all those schools – if you really would be happy at either of those and won’t have any regrets, then apply ED to one of them. Personally, I would prefer ED be used for the school you really really want to go to.

4

My S2 was similar to you in profile, but he also had brown legacy…his father and his brother, who was a junior at brown at the time S2 applied. He had 3 decent SAT2s: a 770 lit, 760 us history, 800 world history. His SATs were lopsided like your ACT. He had a 800 CR, 690 M, 770 W. And his UW GPA was a 92…he also did well in all his humanities but always got a B+ in his math classes, all the way through AP calculus AB. He had national and regional writing awards and some other awards, including national merit scholar. I think he wrote a decent application, since he was successfully admitted to a number of competitive schools.

He applied early to brown and was deferred. He thinks it was probably due to his GPA (he had honors courses and 6 APs, so a rigorous schedule for his high school but his GPA was low for brown). He ultimately decided to apply ED2 to tufts because it was among his top 3 favorite schools & had the ed2 option (the other being WUSTL).

But chin up: Despite his relatively weaker GPA, he still did well in college admissions. He was admitted to tufts ed2, as well as to UMichigan, UWisconsin, Upitt, Tulane with $120,000 merit award, University of Southern California as a finalist for $180,000 merit (he had to withdraw when accepted to tufts), to WUSTL as a finalist for their writing merit award, URochester with merit $, and UCLA (even though he withdrew his app). He was also heavily recruit by Penn’s Kelly Writer’s House but he didn’t like Penn’s vibe when he visited, so he found it easy to withdraw his app.

All this to say, that despite being lopsided, he still did well in college admissions and although brown was his first choice, he’s loving Tufts and is rocking it. So, yes, your lopsided GPA and scores may hurt your chances at brown. Still, I think if you write an excellent application, you’ll have a shot at some good schools (& who knows, you may even get accepted to brown). Whether to apply ED to brown is tough to answer. My son did because he knew he would regret it if he didn’t try. also, in retrospect his deferral and the extra time it gave him to think deeply about the colleges on his list allowed him to realize that he could thrive at tufts and WUSTL and so many other schools he was looking at. I think it was hard for him to withdraw from brown but he wasn’t confident he’d get in from the deferral, especially because according to naviance, his GPA made him an outlier and brown had already accepted 2 kids ED, and until that class year, had never accepted more than 2 kids and usually only in the ED round. Since my son’s class year (2014), they have accepted 4.

Best of luck to you. It’s not easy grappling with these decisions, but if you’re truly thoughtful, you’ll land at a college where you’ll be happy.

5

Thank you for everyone’s thoughtful responses so far. I am considering all of your advice and I really appreciate the reality check. I guess I’m feeling a bit disillusioned now, but I suppose it’s for the best. I just wish I wasn’t so terrible at math… Here’s to tomorrow’s ACT, haha. I hope to visit Vassar and Wesleyan soon to be sure before I apply ED. Again, thanks.

6

Also, keep in mind about finances. Brown is an extremely expensive school and I could just imagine applying ED , getting accepted , and then find out you can pay for it and you have to turn it down (which I heard will “blacklist” you from the school.) Though definitely visit your other top schools and apply ED if it’s absolutely your top choice because you will be bound if accepted.

Also according to my counselor who worked for Harvard admissions, there’s also a lot of luck into these acceptances as all schools want a well-rounded class of different people. There are so many parts on of the application they look at and consider that all I can say is you definitely are a viable candidate for Brown and you can just hope for the best.

Good luck and definitely tour the other schools!