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<p>I bet she didn’t phrase it this way – although she might as well have done so: “The past failures of others who applied shall deny you the opportunity to apply, thereby condemning you, with absolute certainty, to the same fate and forever precluding you and others from ever altering this high school’s track record at Brown.”</p>
<p>Obviously your guidance counselor isn’t a big fan of Brown if she’s shutting the Van Wickle Gates for her students so readily. (You’ll notice that I’ve arbitrarily decided that she’s a she.) </p>
<p>Her position on Brown is fascinating to me.</p>
<p>Did she just now come to this conclusion (to start advising students against applying to Brown)? In other words, was applying to Brown fine for students last year or two years ago, but as of NOW – this year – has she determined that the track record has spoken and that a Brown education shall forthwith be forever foreclosed to students at your high school? How will she advise the following year’s students…and the ones after that? Because, if you and others go along with her logic, that “perfect” track record she’s referring to ain’t ever gonna change, is it?</p>
<p>Or maybe you’re one of those future year students and she’s telling you this because from 1992-1998 nobody was accepted and so, because of that, nobody has applied since then and – voila! – nobody since 1991 has been accepted. At what point does a losing streak such as the one she wants to guide your actions become too ancient for you?</p>
<p>Or…have students in recent past years been receiving the same advice she’s giving you – deciding to ignore her “wisdom” and apply to Brown anyway with disappointing results? And, if so, are you confident that she’s willing to admit her error if some of them did get accepted? More importantly, do you think these other students who went against her advice are more independent and self-driven than you are by going against her advice?</p>
<p>If you’re more inclined to blindly follow than they are, you might consider letting her advice guide you as to your future. If you’re less (or equally) inclined to take orders blindly, you wouldn’t give much weight to her “the past failures of others who tried shall condemn you to the same failure without having a chance to try” advice.</p>
<p>The concern I’d have would not be so much with Brown as it might be with the guidance counselor. From my perusing these forums, I have the impression that Brown’s admission team does more calling to high school guidance counselors to inquire about applicants than other colleges. And if she’s got some thing going on that makes her predisposed to keep students from so much as applying to Brown, I might not want Brown calling her.</p>