<p>I'm considering not applying to Brown because a boy from my grade is also applying. He's a legacy with rich parents and similar stats to mine. I hear the admit rate for legacies is nearly double, and that Brown doesn't like to take multiple kids from the same high school.
If we were on equal playing ground I think I'd get in over him, based on both scores and extracurriculars, but that's just not the case. I feel like I'm giving in to the system or something if I just throw my hands up and don't apply...but it also seems like a waste of money, time, and a big disappointment in the spring if I do..</p>
<p>I think you should apply.
I have the same problem, however. I was planning on applying to Dartmouth ED but a kid from my school, a rich legacy whose family donates large amounts of money, was also set on the school. But, in the course of a few months, he fell in love with UVA and I decided not to apply ED. Funny how things change.</p>
<p>If you like Brown, go ahead and apply. I don't really believe in the 1 student only from a school worries. Does your high school regularly send students to top schools? Perhaps your guidance office can give you some perspective. I had no idea how many other students had applied to similar schools as my daughter until the acceptances/rejections came in. Work very hard on your application - have a couple teachers look over the essays and then polish it some more. For all you know, this other student might get lazy with his application thinking that he is an easy admit.</p>
<p>Find other colleges that you could be happy at. There have been threads before suggesting some that have a similar vibe or curriculum as Brown.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Something like 6 or 7 kids were accepted form my school</p>
<p>And something like ZERO will be accepted from mine. (The same goes for any other top schools, except hopefully the ones I apply to.)People say that they only take a certain number, but they take as many as they want to come to their school. Just show that you are different on your application. For example, if the other kid is a jock, play up your music/art and downplay the sports (but still include it).</p>
<p>Brown and Cornell accepted a lot of kids from my school</p>
<p>It depends.</p>
<p>At mine, several top schools this year only accepted legacies/recruited athletes/very wealthy people. It was not in line with previous years, and they rejected applicants who had swept at every other school (and the admitted students frequently didn’t get in to any other stretches). Because schools always accept a couple of kids from my school, some students were certainly shut out, so to speak.</p>
<p>However, there’s no reason not to apply as long as you realize that you’re fighting an uphill battle with the rich/legacy students.</p>
<p>You have nothing to lose by applying RD. Though for ED/SCEA since it is something that can only be used once, if you are choosing between two equally wonderful schools, something like this definitely can tip the decision.</p>
<p>Apply wherever you would like to attend (within reason, of course). Whether you get in or not will be a reflection of your abilities and some luck, not a reflection of your school.</p>
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<p>Think of it this way, if you were a new on-the-scene actor in Hollywood, you might be hearing NO, so often you might think it’s your new name. So, what if a thin envelope comes? But, wouldn’t it kill you more to never know?</p>
<p>My kid’s school - they usually get only 1 into Harvard each year. Some of the other Ivies might be 3 or 4 depending on the year. We had two for Harvard this year, but one is an Olympic class sculler.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t not apply to a school that you really want 1) based on hearsay and 2) based on someone else’s preference.</p>
<p>You “heard” that the admit rate for legacies is nearly double and you also “heard” that Brown doesn’t like multiple kids from the same high school. You don’t know either of those things for fact, so you could possibly be shutting yourself out over something silly. Also, some of the top prep schools send multiple kids to Brown every year, so there’s some evidence that they sometimes (often) do take multiple kids from the same high school.</p>
<p>Think of college application fees as an investment in your future. If you don’t get into a school, it’s not a waste – you invested in an opportunity for your future to give yourself options. College applications are expensive, but college is even MORE expensive and spending more upfront having many favorable options in the end is preferable to skimping in the beginning and having to take whatever you can get in the end.</p>
<p>Go ahead and apply – no sense in missing an opportunity just because this kid happened to be born to someone who went to your favorite college.</p>
<p>Plus, even if they will only select one of you, how do you know it won’t be you??</p>
<p>That is correct. But depending on the school the OP attends, he should be aware that sometimes overwhelming preferential treatment is given to some applicants.</p>
<p>androw, universities generally approach each applicant individually and do not check how many applicants from one school have been admitted. Obviously, your classmate with Brown connections has an added advantage should he have similar credentials to yours, but that does not mean he will be chosen over you or that Brown will not accept you simply because they accepted him.</p>
<p>Alexandre, I would wonder then why the top schools (e.g. HYPS, MIT, Stanford, and AWS) always find that there are exactly the same number of qualified students from my school, regardless of how many recruited athletes, legacies, and developmental admits there are, on top of the obviously qualified applicants.</p>
<p>Don’t believe what the OC tells you.</p>
<p>some level of preferential treatment is often given to high schools as a whole. for example, being from a more elite high school or one well known by a certain college will get you through the first round of admission picks, no questions asked. after that if they’re looking at your school, it’s usually just for academic rigor so they can better understand your grades because the extracurriculars you’ve done in your high school career won’t be limited by your particular alma mater.</p>
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Do you come from a top private school or very very well known public? Typically top universities have more, “understandings” with those schools and have imaginary quotas that are not fixed, but they know that X number of students being produced there are well-qualified applicants each year.</p>
<p>1) Brown does not limit the number of people per school at all. My school district had gotten no one into Brown in ten years and then we had four people (one from each of two high schools, two from another) just in my year. The years since have seen only 1 or 2 district-wide.</p>
<p>2) Is the $ for the application going to drastically change your day-to-day circumstances the way an acceptance to Brown would?</p>
<p>3) The process is more unpredictable than you can fathom.</p>
<p>If it is where you want to be, you owe it to yourself to apply.</p>
<p>I would just apply, if you have nothing to lose.</p>
<p>You only have something to lose if you don’t apply to enough other schools. I think you should apply to Brown if you want to go there, but don’t make it your only “reach” school. Don’t get too fixated on any one school–at this level of selectivity, there can be lots of mysterious reasons that the schools may take one applicant over another.</p>